From Speech Physiology to Linguistic Phonetics

Communicating by speech is seemingly one of the most natural activities for humans. However, despite its apparent obviousness and ease, speech production is a very complex activity with multiple levels of organization involved with transforming cognitive intent into a meaningful sequence of sounds. This book establishes a connection between the physiology of speech and linguistics, and provides a detailed account of speech production processes, indicating how various languages of the world make use of human anthropophonic capacities. The book also offers new insights into the possible ways in which articulatory-based phonetics and phonology might be unified, making it essential reading matter for anyone involved in this field. Numerous illustrations are included which enhance the reader’s understanding.

Scientific disciplines are generally defined by reference to the methods that they use. Phonetics, by contrast, is rather defined by its object: the scientific study of speech. It calls on the methods of physiology, for speech is the product of mechanisms which are basically there to ensure survival of the human being; on the methods of physics, since the means by which speech is transmitted is acoustic in nature; on methods of psychology, as the acoustic speech-stream is received and processed by the auditory and neural systems; and on methods of linguistics, because the vocal message is made up of signs which belong to the codes of language.

Given this, phonetics finds itself at the intersection between human and social sciences, health sciences and the sciences of information technology and communication. Spoken communication has its roots in what we are accustomed to call the audio-phonatory loop. This arises in the speaker who intends to impart a message; it is followed by the selection and organization of linguistic signs, the construction of a motor plan, and the execution of motor commands resulting in a series of transformations of the geometry of the vocal tract and the transmission of an intelligible acoustic signal, from which the listener retrieves the meaning of the message by means of hearing, stimulation of the auditory and peripheral nerves, perception and linguistic analysis.

Speech constitutes a favored means of human communication by virtue of its “apparent” ease and because of the speed of information transmission that it enables. Thus, an average output of 20 phonemes per second allows not less than 150 words per minute that humans can produce for communication purposes. In addition to its semantic function, speech also conveys information about the speaker himself: his geographic origin, his social orientation, his emotions and his attitudes.