Speech organ in the context of "Approximant"

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⭐ Core Definition: Speech organ

The field of articulatory phonetics is a subfield of phonetics that studies articulation and ways that humans produce speech. Articulatory phoneticians explain how humans produce speech sounds via the interaction of different physiological structures. Generally, articulatory phonetics is concerned with the transformation of aerodynamic energy into acoustic energy. Aerodynamic energy refers to the airflow through the vocal tract. Its potential form is air pressure; its kinetic form is the actual dynamic airflow. Acoustic energy is variation in the air pressure that can be represented as sound waves, which are then perceived by the human auditory system as sound.

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👉 Speech organ in the context of Approximant

Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough, nor with enough articulatory precision, to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which produce a turbulent airstream, and vowels, which produce no turbulence. This class is composed of sounds like [ɹ] (as in rest) and semivowels like [j] and [w] (as in yes and west, respectively), as well as lateral approximants like [l] (as in less).

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Speech organ in the context of Diphthong

A diphthong (/ˈdɪfθɒŋ, ˈdɪp-/ DIF-thong, DIP-), also known as a gliding vowel or a vowel glide, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech apparatus) moves during the pronunciation of the vowel. In most varieties of English, the phrase "no highway cowboys" (/noʊ ˈhaɪweɪ ˈkaʊbɔɪz/ noh HY-way KOW-boyz) has five distinct diphthongs, one in every syllable.

Diphthongs contrast with monophthongs, where the tongue or other speech organs do not move and the syllable contains only a single vowel sound. For instance, in English, the word ah is spoken as a monophthong (/ɑː/), while the word ow is spoken as a diphthong in most varieties (/aʊ/). Where two adjacent vowel sounds occur in different syllables (e.g. in the English word re-elect) the result is described as hiatus, not as a diphthong.

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LINKED FROM (PARENTS)
← Diphthong ← Diphthongs ← Approximant
LINKS TO (CHILDREN)
Phonetics → Sound → Physiological → Aerodynamic → Energy → Acoustics → Vocal tract → Potential energy → Air pressure → Kinetic energy → Dynamics (physics) → Sound waves → Auditory system →