Speech is the
vocalized form of
human communication. It is based upon the
syntactic combination of
lexicals and
names that are drawn from very large (usually >10,000 different words)
vocabularies. Each spoken word is created out of the
phonetic combination of a limited set of
vowel and
consonant speech sound units. These vocabularies, the syntax which structures them, and their set of speech sound units, differ creating the existence of many thousands of different types of
mutually unintelligible human
languages. Human speakers are often
polyglot able to communicate in two or more of them. The vocal abilities that enable humans to produce speech also provide humans with the ability to
sing.
A gestural form of human communication exists for the
deaf in the form of
sign language. Speech in some
cultures has become the basis of a
written language, often one that differs in its vocabulary, syntax and phonetics from its associated spoken one, a situation called
diglossia. Speech in addition to its use in communication, it is suggested by some
psychologists such as
Vygotsky is internally used by mental processes to enhance and organize
cognition in the form of an
interior monologue.
Speech is researched in terms of the
speech production and
speech perception of the
sounds used in
spoken language. Several academic disciplines study these including
acoustics,
psychology,
speech pathology,
linguistics,
cognitive science,
communication studies,
otolaryngology and
computer science. Another area of research is how the
human brain in its different areas such as the
Broca's area and
Wernicke's area underlies speech.
It is controversial how far human speech is unique in that other animals also
communicate with vocalizations. While none in the
wild uses syntax nor compatibly large vocabularies, research upon the nonverbal abilities of language trained
apes such as
Washoe and
Kanzi raises the possibility that they might have these capabilities.
The
origins of speech are unknown and subject to much debate and speculation.
Speech production
In
linguistics (
articulatory phonetics),
manner of articulation describes how the tongue, lips, jaw, and other speech organs are involved in making a sound make contact. Often the concept is only used for the production of
consonants. For any
place of articulation, there may be several manners, and therefore several
homorganic consonants.
Normal human speech is produced with pulmonary pressure provided by the
lungs which creates
phonation in the
glottis in the
larynx that then is modified by the
vocal tract into different
vowels and
consonants. However humans can pronounce words without the use of the lungs and glottis in
alaryngeal speech of which there are three types:
esophageal speech, pharyngeal speech and buccal speech (better known as
Donald Duck talk).
Speech perception
Speech perception refers to the processes by which humans are able to interpret and understand the sounds used in language. The study of speech perception is closely linked to the fields of phonetics and phonology in linguistics and cognitive psychology and perception in psychology. Research in speech perception seeks to understand how human listeners recognize speech sounds and use this information to understand
spoken language. Speech research has applications in building computer systems that can recognize speech, as well as improving speech recognition for hearing- and language-impaired listeners. Rosetta is an example of listening software.
Problems involving speech
There are several biological and psychological factors that can affect speech. Among these are:
- Diseases and disorders of the brain, including alogia, aphasias, dysarthria, dystonia and speech processing disorders, where impaired motor planning, nerve transmission, phonological processing or perception of the message (as opposed to the actual sound) leads to poor speech production.
Line notes
See also
Category:Oral communicationar:كلامde:Sprechenet:Kõnees:Hablafa:گفتارhe:דיבורit:linguaggioja:音声oc:Paraulapt:Falapl:Mowa (dźwięk)ru:Речьsk:Rečsr:Говорyi:רעדן
