speech sounds
Vocal language units
Speech sounds are the distinct units of sound produced by the human voice when speaking—the vowels, consonants, and other oral noises that combine to form words.
Linguistics analyzes these as phonemes, the smallest sound units that distinguish meaning in a language.
English has about 44 speech sounds, though spelling suggests otherwise.
- consonantsLetters that aren't vowels
- plosiveConsonant with blocked release
- phoneticsStudy of speech sounds
- articulationClear vocal expression
- diphthongComplex vowel gliding between positions
phoneme · affricate · allophone · formant · phonology · cluster · nasal · vowels · voicing · aspirated · glide · trill · rolled r · lips · throat · tongue · hard palate · soft palate
- speechspeaking, talk, diction, conversation, pronunciation
- lip-readingmouthing, phonemes, visual cues
- phoneticsphonemes, phoneme, vocal folds, consonants, vowels
- phonologyphonemes, phoneme, consonants, vowels, allophone
- speech therapySLP, voice therapy, stuttering, apraxia, dysarthria
- linguisticslinguistics, phoneme, phonemes, morpheme, morphemes
speech soundswriting
Recorded language on surface
letters · script · orthography · text · graphemes
speech soundssilence
Total lack of sound
muteness · sign language · wordlessness · gestures · non-verbal communication
speech soundsnoise
Unwanted auditory disturbance
white noise · coughs · music · animal sounds · ambient noise