• Question: How do we speak?

    Asked by alan1421 to Anil, Blanka, Cees, Emma, Mike on 29 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Emma Trantham

      Emma Trantham answered on 29 Jun 2012:

      Good question alan1421

      When we speak quite a few things are happening:

      1) Air is pushed up from our lungs through our windpipe (also called the trachea)
      2) The air reaches our voicebox (properly called the larynx) which is at the top of our necks
      3) In the larynx are folds of tissue called vocal folds. As the air moves over these folds the folds vibrate.
      4) When the folds vibrate at the right frequency they make a noise (imagine twanging a rubber band – that noise is made by the band vibrating, just like what happens when our vocal cords vibrate)
      5) We can tighten or relax these vocal cords to change the pitch of the noise we make (so whether it is a really high sound or a really low sound)
      6) We use our mouth muscles, lips and tongue to shape the sound so that it comes out as meaningful words rather than just a series of grunts.

      Does that answer your question?

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