In this video we are going to learn about the vocal tract and articulators.

The vocal tract is an important part in our body that helps us create and form sounds, and therefore, our voice. It consists of our oral and nasal cavities, the pharynx and larynx. I know lots of complicated names but fear not! I have added a simple diagram so you can see which parts I am talking about.

The air stream from our lungs is flowing through the vocal tract. This is when the articulators become important. They help shape the airstream into sounds.

We have many articulators. For example, our tongue, lips, teeth, alveolar ridge and several others. These can be divided into active and passive articulators. The active articulators are moveable whereas the passive articulators are stationary. In general, the active articulators move towards the passive articulators when we form sounds. For instance, when forming the sound /t/ the tongue (an active articulator) moves towards the alveolar ridge (a passive articulator) to form a closure, thus producing the plosive sound /t/.

---