The classification of English speech sounds

The classification of English speech sounds

Sound is a result of the disturbance of air by some kind of movement. These disturbances of the air are called sound waves. Examples of the types of movement that cause this disturbance of air are the vibrations of a tuning fork, a guitar string, or a rubber band. Let's take the guitar string as an example. The disturbance in the air is the movement of air molecules as a result of the movement of the string back and forth. When a guitar string is plucked, the string quickly moves back and forth. As it goes in one direction, the string pushes the air molecules closest to it. These air molecules then get closer to the air molecules surrounding it. This is called compression.

Here's a little note about air molecules. They prefer to be equidistant from each other. If an air molecule gets too close. the surrounding air molecules move away, attempting to reestablish the status quo. So, when the air molecules closest to the string are compressed against the surrounding molecules, a chain reaction is set up, in which the surrounding air molecules move away from the first ones, and are then compressed against other air molecules, which then move away.