 "Articulation"
is the production of speech sounds. Intelligibility is a measure
of how well speech can be understood. Someone with an
"articulation disorder" can be hard to understand because they
say sounds incorrectly. They might substitute one sound for
another, e.g., "I hurt my weg"' for "I hurt my leg". They might
distort the sound so it sounds funny but is still recognizable
as the same sound. Think of how Sylvester the cat from the
cartoon says his "s" sounds: "sufferin' succotash". The "s"
sounds slushy but is still an "s". The other way to produce a
sound incorrectly is to omit it entirely.
"Phonology" is the science of speech sounds and
sound patterns. Every language has rules about how sounds can be
combined. If a child does not use the conventional rules for
his/her language but develops their own, they may have a
"phonological disorder". In this case, classes of sounds, rather
than single sounds are affected. For example, the child may have
their own rule for sounds produced at the back of the mouth -
they make them all at the front of the mouth. So instead of
saying "cup", they "tup", instead of "go" they say "doe".
Sounds can be classified in three ways: where
in the mouth they are produced (place), how they are produced
(manner), and whether the voice box is on or off (voice). A
"phonological process" is an unusual rule that is being used and
changes the place, manner, or voice of a group of sounds. Some
phonological processes are: fronting, backing, gliding, cluster
reduction, devoicing, stopping.
Adults and children can have articulation
problems. Children who do not receive speech therapy and do not
"outgrow" their speech difficulties will continue to make speech
errors as adults.
In a multi-cultural country, the
assessment and treatment of articulation/phonological disorders
becomes more interesting. Not all languages have the same rules
for combining sounds, nor do all languages have the same sounds.
A child who is learning English as a second language must also
learn a new sound system. They may have perfect articulation in
their native language and are making errors in English only
because they haven't yet learned all the new rules. The rules
may be contrary to the rules in their native language. Here are
some examples:
"th" is a sound that occurs in the languages
of English and Greek. Listen to people with mother tongues other
than English or Greek and you will hear them use "t" or "d"
instead. Thus, you hear "tank you", "coffee wit cream", and "de
boy's brudder is over dere". This really does not affect
intelligibility - you still understand what is said.
In German and Polish, the letter "w" is
pronounced as "v" is in English. If a native German speaker
learns to speak and read English simultaneously, they may
substitute all English "w"s with "v": "Vat is that?", "vere are
you going?".
In many Asian languages, the final consonant
sounds are unreleased. When a native Cantonese or Vietnamese
speaker speaks English, it may sound like they are leaving off
the last sound. The rule in their language is different from the
rule in English.
In Spanish the "sh" sound does not exist; many native Spanish
speakers will confuse "sh" with "ch" and say "chip" for "ship".
In Portuguese, the "ch" and "j" sounds do not exist and the
reverse occurs: "chip" is pronounced "ship". In Spanish, the "v"
sound does not exist. The letter "v" is pronounced like the
English "b" when it is at the beginning of words.
In Punjabi, the "f" and "v" sounds are not
produced like English "f" and "v" but sound more like "p" and
"b" respectively. A native Punjabi speaker may sound like he/she
is saying "berry" when they mean "very".
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