- For 'speech', meaning a talk, see Public speaking
Speech is when spoken language is used to communicate. Only humans have language. Animals do not have speech, but some (birds are a good example) can communicate with each other by using sounds and gestures.
Speech is made by sounds vibrating the vocal folds. Sounds through the voice box is shaped by the jaw, tongue, teeth, palate, lips, and nose.
To make speech a person has to be able to:
- choose speech sounds
- put them into a sequence
- produce sound in the voice box
- use the lips, tongue, teeth, nose and palate to shape the sounds