1. The vocal tract If the human head were to be cut in half down
the midline, the organs of speech would appear like this. (Click
on the MRI image to see a movie clip showing what it looks like
during speech.) |(Downloaded from
http://www.csulb.edu/~phoneme/organs.html.)| The lungs, which
are in the chest, are connected to the tube which goes up to the
vocal cords (the trachea or windpipe). Perhaps the most
important organ of speech, the brain, is visible in the MRI
image. |Above: (i) External structure of the larynx, as viewed
from the front.||(ii) Coronal (vertical) section through the
larynx, as viewed from the back.| |The upper part of the
interior of the larynx may be examined using various
instruments, allowing us to obtain images such as following.
Viewed from above, with the vocal cords slightly apart, the of
the larynx appears like this: The space between the vocal cords
is called the glottis. the vocal cords vibrate, the resulting
disturbance in the air imparts a "buzzing" quality to the
speech, cal