Anatomy of the Human Articulators

The term articulation refers to one structure making intimate contact with another. Articulation in anatomical terms refers to one bone making contact with another, typically through a suture. In speech production, articulation refers to the moveable and immobile structures of the vocal tract that are manipulated to produce speech. The common feature of all the articulators is that they shape the sound that the listener hears into those sounds that are agreed on as speech.

This entry describes the articulators of the vocal tract, which consists of three cavities that can be modified through movement of a set of physical structures, the articulators. The tongue is the most versatile and significant of the articulators, being involved in many of the sounds of speech. The mandible is ...