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/ahr tik'yeuh lay"sheuhn/, n.1. an act or the process of articulating: the articulation of a form; the articulation of a new thought.2. Phonet.a. the act or process of articulating speech.b. the adjustments and movements of speech organs involved in pronouncing a particular sound, taken as a whole.c. any one of these adjustments and movements.d. any speech sound, esp. a consonant.3. the act of jointing.4. a jointed state or formation; a joint.5. Bot.a. a joint or place between two parts where separation may take place spontaneously, as at the point of attachment of a leaf.b. a node in a stem, or the space between two nodes.6. Anat., Zool. a joint, as the joining or juncture of bones or of the movable segments of an arthropod.7. Dentistry.a. the positioning of teeth in a denture, usually on an articulator, for correct occlusion.b. the bringing of opposing tooth surfaces into contact with each other.c. the relations of the upper and lower natural or artificial teeth in occlusion.8. a measure of the effectiveness of a telephonic transmission system in reproducing speech comprehensibly, expressed as the percentage of speech units uttered that is correctly understood.[1400-50; late ME articulacio(u)n < MF < L articulation-, s. of articulatio. See ARTICULATE, -ION]
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In phonetics, the shaping of the vocal tract (larynx, pharynx, and oral and nasal cavities) by positioning mobile organs (such as the tongue) relative to other parts that may be rigid (such as the hard palate) and thus modifying the airstream to produce speech sounds.Articulators include the tongue, lips, teeth and upper gum ridge, hard and soft palate, uvula, pharyngeal wall, and glottis. Primary articulation refers either to where or how the vocal tract is narrowed or blocked to produce a consonant, or to the tongue contour, lip shape, and larynx height that determine the sound of a vowel. Other articulators may be used to produce a secondary articulation such as palatalization (the front of the tongue approaching the hard palate), glottalization (complete or partial closure of the vocal cords), or nasalization (simultaneous passage of air through the nasal and oral tracts).* * *
▪ speechin phonetics, a configuration of the vocal tract (the larynx and the pharyngeal, oral, and nasal cavities) resulting from the positioning of the mobile organs of the vocal tract (e.g., tongue) relative to other parts of the vocal tract that may be rigid (e.g., hard palate). This configuration modifies an airstream to produce the sounds of speech. The main articulators are the tongue, the upper lip, the lower lip, the upper teeth, the upper gum ridge (alveolar ridge), the hard palate, the velum (soft palate), the uvula (free-hanging end of the soft palate), the pharyngeal wall, and the glottis (space between the vocal cords).Articulations may be divided into two main types, primary and secondary. Primary articulation refers to either (1) the place and manner in which the stricture is made for a consonant or (2) the tongue contour, lip shape, and height of the larynx used to produce a vowel. The primary articulation may still permit some range of movement for other articulators not involved in its formation. For example, an “apico alveolar” articulation involves the tip of the tongue but leaves the lips and back of the tongue free to produce some degree of further stricture in the vocal tract. This latter is called a secondary articulation. Among the chief secondary articulations are palatalization, as in Russian and many other languages (the front of the tongue approaching the hard palate); velarization (the back of the tongue approaching the soft palate, or velum); labialization (added lip-rounding), glottalization (complete or partial closure of the vocal cords); and nasalization (simultaneous passage of air through the nasal and oral tracts).* * *
Universalium. 2010.
