Articulation is an element of speech production. Articulation signifies all actions of the organs of the vocal tract. It basically effects the modifications of the signal generated by the vocal source. This modification leads to certain speech events which are identified as consonants, vowels or other phonological units of a language. According to Maddieson and Ladefoged’s framework (1996), the relation between types of phonetic variation and a segment is defined by a set of features.
Articulation refers to the supra-laryngeal activity and is classified by:
- the manner of articulation (tap, stricture or trill)
- the place of articulation (location of the maximum constriction of the vocal tract)
- degree of laterality
- nasality
According to Laver’s framework, any factor beyond the degree and location of stricture is regarded as an aspect of articulation. Three general aspects were given by him:
- Topographical (categories of the position of the tongue tip and root and the tongue surface shape)
- Confirmational (routing in nasal and vocal tract)
- Transitional (dynamic aspects of articulator movement)
Articulation does not include voice quality factors only. However it may influence the phonation process. It happens due to the charged coupling between the vocal tract and the source.
The secondary aspect of articulation is to shape the paralinguistic layer. This is achieved by “bleaching” and “coloring” the phonetic segments with the speaker’s personality. Articulation can be perceived as the setting (non segmental feature).
The metrical (and prosodic) organization of an utterance includes voice quality factors. In continuous speech, the syllables are pronounced with varied prominence. The prominence of a syllable involves factors like:
- loudness
- pitch
- articulatory quality
- duration
In most cases, muscular effort from the speaker is required for a more prominent syllable. This tension in the muscles along with changes in duration, loudness and articulation are perceived as a change in voice quality.
