Flamingo: The Spoken Language

The word I choose to write about is flamingo. Flamingo is a three syllable word that has the nasal sounds /m/ and /n/ in it. This paper will walk you through the steps it takes to physically produce the word. Spoken language may seem effortless, but it requires a complex dance of the muscles in the lips, jaw, tongue and voice box. The ability to produce accurate speech sounds in rapid succession is something we humans take for granted. In fact, speech production is an extremely involved process. Thoughts must be translated into linguistic representations which are then sent to speech mechanisms that can coordinate, initiate, modify and execute the articulation of an utterance. In order for sounds to be produced correctly, the lips, tongue,
The larynx, more commonly known as the voice box or the Adam's apple, is crucial in the production and differentiation of speech sounds. The larynx is located at exactly the point where the throat divides between the trachea (the windpipe), which leads to the lungs, and the esophagus (the tube that carries food or drink to the stomach). Over the larynx is a flap called the epiglottis that closes off the trachea when we swallow. This prevents the passage of food into the lungs. When the epiglottis is folded back out of the way, the parts of the larynx that are involved in speech production can be
The brain is largely responsible for many processes that can turn a mass of incoming noise into something useful and understandable. Auditory discrimination is the process by which one is able to note the differences between sounds; this is extremely important to language as spoken words are understood based on different sounds. Discrimination between foreground and background is also an important part of auditory discrimination. It is important to be able to focus on important noises and to ignore irrelevant and unimportant noises so that one is not overwhelmed by a vast amount of noise. Auditory synthesis is another process very important to the comprehension of language. It describes the process by which the brain combines different sounds into understandable units, similar to the way letters are combined into words and words into sentences. Auditory sequencing is a process closely related to both memory and auditory perception. It describes the ability to understand and remember the order in which certain sounds