1. Dimensions of Speech
&
Mechanism of Speech
By:
Kaushal Yadav, Assistant Professor- Languages
Jahangirabad Institute of Technology, Bababanki

2. English Language in India…
• The British came to India in 1600 and started
trading posts in many cities of the country
under the control of East India Company. By
1765 British were controlling most of the
parts of the country. By 1700 English had
established itself as the language of
administration and then the educated Indian
group demanding English as language of
instruction for social advancement.

3. …English Language in India
• By 1857 universities of Bombay, Calcutta and
Madras were opened and English had become
the language of the elite, of the national press
and of the government.
• Now, for a vast majority in the world English
remains as second language. Although English is
not an indigenous language but it is an associate
language in India. ‘Hindi’ and ‘English’ are the
two official languages in India that connect the
states together.

4. The Four Language Skills
• There are four language skills in any language.
They are:
• Listening
• Speaking
• Reading
• Writing
• Which in short are called the LSRW skills.

5. Spoken English in India
• India ranks 22nd out of the 72
countries in 2016 in EF English
Proficiency index published by EF
Education First. It ranks India 4th out
of 19 Asian countries with a score of
57.30 indicating ‘Moderate
Proficiency’.

6. Structure of English
• English is a foreign language for the people of
Indian subcontinent. It is second language for
all the language users in India, primarily they
learn their regional languages.
• Linguistics is the branch of study that deals
with the study of languages and their
structure. Phonetics, phonology, morphology,
syntax and semantics are the sub-branches.

7. The Organs of Speech
• Languages are multi-dimensional and
complicated. There are different forms and
structure in different languages. Therefore
their rules for writing and speaking vary from
one-another.
• Though the organs of speech for all human
languages are common but the manner of
articulation may vary from one language to
another.

8. The Organs of Speech
• The following are the organs of speech that
participate in the articulation of sounds:
• The lungs- inspiration and expiration
• The larynx- Glottis and vocal cords
• Lips- upper and lower lips
• Teeth- upper teeth and lower teeth
• Nose- for nasalized and nasal sounds
• Tongue- as active articulator at all the times

9. What is Linguistics?
• It is the branch of study that deals with the
study of languages. Linguistics is the scientific
study of languages individually and in
comparison to the other languages as well.
• Tracing a language from its origin to
development and then keeping the record of
modifications in its form and structure time to
time is the job of a linguist.

10. Branches of Linguistics
• According to the specificity of studying the
characteristics in particular, linguistics has
been divided in different branches, namely:
• Phonetics- study of sounds in general
• Phonology- study of sounds in particular
• Morphology- study of word-formation
• Syntax- study of system and rules of writing
• Semantics- study of meaning in a language

11. Phonetic Transcription
• Transcription means change of script from one
form to another. The speech sounds are
converted into scripted form for keeping it as
a written record, this process of transcribing is
called phonetic transcription.
• It is done with the help of predefined phonetic
symbols and accent marks. They are approved
by International Phonetic Association (IPA).

12. Description of Speech Sounds
• Speech sounds are categorized as Vowel
Sounds and Consonant Sounds. It is as simple
to identify as we do the vowel letters and
consonant letters. Speech sounds are
describes at the following parameters:
• Nature of air-stream mechanism
• State of glottis
• Place of articulation
• Manner of articulation

13. Word Accent/Stress in speech
• Accent plays vital role in articulation of a word
and in turn in its comprehension to the
listener. Sometimes, words with same spelling
may have different meaning/s because of the
stress marked on them. Stress marks also
decide the role of a word in a written
documents. Stress is of two types in phonetics:
• Primary Stress
• Secondary Stress

14. Rhythm in Speech
• Stress in a connected or continuous way
makes rhythm in speech. Typical and difficult
words are contracted or abbreviated to
improve the quality of rhythm in speech. It
lessens the effort (energy spent) at speaking.
• This sometimes becomes ambiguous to the
non-native speakers of a language and may
lead to confusion or wrong interpretation of
meaning.

15. Intonation in Speech
• Tone is also a key component of speech. It
refers to pitch patterns of speech, the falls and
rises of speech that vary may due various
reasons, may be because of state of mind,
reaction to some incident, emotional
outburst, etc. tone is basically two types:
• Falling tone
• Rising tone