Ric and Sharon Bruce On a journey with you to Thailand 
A direct connection exists between the sounds we hear and the way those sounds are produced. Human beings are equipped with a speech apparatus. When the apparatus is operated in a certain manner, a certain sound will result. A symbol in the phonetic alphabet is assigned to that sound.
Things we use to produce sounds include the lips, teeth, tongue, oral cavity, nasal cavity, velic, and glottis. These can be manipulated to produce a variety of sounds including consonants (when air is hindered by the speech apparatus as it leaves the body) and vowels (which are produced with minimal obstruction of the flow of air.)
Consonants are classified by the manner they are articulated and by which piece of the speech apparatus is doing the articulation. Consonants may also be voiced (the vibrating of the vocal chords) or aspirated (a puff of air released as a consonant is being produced.) So when producing certain sounds like "k" the air is stopped off at the velic. "k", then, can be classified as the unaspirated velar stop.
All vowels are produced as air passes between the tongue and the palate. High vowels are produced as the tongue moves closer to the palate, low vowels are produced when the tongue moves further from the palate. Vowels are also defined by the highest position of the tongue in relation to the palate. Sounds where the tongue peaks near the front of the palate are front vowels. Central vowels are in the center and back vowels are produced in the back of the palate. The terms "close" and "open" further refine the position of the tongue. The sound "o", then, is the close mid back rounded vowel.
Phonetics has proven quite challenging over the past three weeks. Many of the sounds we are capable of producing are not used in English and some sounds we make no distinction between can change the meaning of words in other languages. The class will be ongoing next semester, so hopefully we will remember what we learned this semester when we come back from break.
You can pray we would be able to keep up with the many new concepts being presented in the class and that we would be able to reproduce all the sounds clearly. Thanks!
