An Introduction to French Pronunciation

2
The Production of Speech 13
The Production of Speech
2.1 Introduction
Human speech involves the use of various anatomical organs
whose primary purpose is connected with breathing and/or
eating and drinking, or with related activities such as coughing,
sneezing, spitting, biting, sucking. For our purposes, it can be
assumed that the sounds of speech are produced by expelling
air from the lungs and modifying or momentarily stopping
its flow as it passes first up the windpipe and between the socalled
‘vocal cords’ (see 2.2.1) and then through the mouth
and/or the nose (see figure 1).
2.2 The Vocal Cords and Voice
2.2.1 The ‘vocal cords’ are not in fact cords at all but two
bands of muscular tissue that stretch across the larynx from
front to back at the point known as the ‘Adam’s apple’. The
term ‘cords’ is, however, well established and no harm will
be done if we continue to use it. The cords may be kept apart
from one another (except at the front where they are attached
adjacent to one another) or be brought together as a kind of
valve that can close off the air stream, momentarily penning
in the lungs and trachea (or windpipe) the air that has been
inhaled. (One can sometimes feel the effect of this in the throat