THE VOCAL TRACT

http://www.yorku.ca/earmstro/journey/index.html

Eric Armstrong

This study of the production of articulate sound can be thought of as a journey through a series of processes. Along the journey we will encounter many physical landmarks, the anatomy, and see some amazing events, the physiology. Hopefully you will come to understand how the different steps along the path of voice and speech lead to the utterance that creates spoken language.

However, one must remember that voice, in reality, is not like a linear voyage that goes through one thing at a time: many of these processes work at once, and the action of speaking is complex and integrates many actions at once.

The Journey's Itinerary

•This voyage begins with understanding the structures that support the muscles, cartilages and bones that produce the sound, the Framework of the voice. It's a bit like looking at the map of the roads and infrastructures that we will use on our trip.

•Next, we board "the Respiration train", the process whereby the breath stream is engaged.

•Once the breath is in motion, we can examine how the vocal chords, nowadays called vocal folds, move to create sound, as we pass through Phonation .

•Our next stop on this vocal voyage allows us to explore the Resonation of the basic sound.

•Articulation is the part of the journey where we shape the sound into understandable language. In many ways it is the most complex part of the trip, involving a variety of mucles and articulators to shape the sound and breath into language.

•Our journey ends with a quick trip to study how to Care for your voice. Here you will visit the museum of vocal trauma and irritants; on your way out be sure to visit our library of voice remedies and some suggestions of soothing syrups and lovely lozenges.

This voyage may seem a little intimidating at first - many of the structures we'll be visiting have big, foreign sounding names (mostly Latin or Greek) - and some of the processes are hard to get a handle on. If you have any problems, please don't hesitate to ask questions by email, at earmstro@yorku.ca or even by phone at (416) 736-2100 x77353

Bon Voyage!

More on Anatomy, Physiology and Care of the Voice

Book: Speech and Hearing Science : Anatomy and Physiology

by Willard R. Zemlin

The definitive book on the Anatomy and Physiology required for those studying Speech and Hearing Science. Also, see Study Guide/Workbook to Accompany Speech and Hearing Science Anatomy and Physiology. Highly recommended.

Gallery of Laryngeal Pathology

The Centre for Voice Disorders of Lake Forest University houses a gallery of gruesome images, and gorgeous vocal folds on display for all to see. See what damage those nasty cigarettes can really do.