What is the concept of English speech

Speech is the sound that human beings make through their articulatory organs, which has a certain meaning and is intended to be used for social communication. [1]Among the three basic attributes of language, namely, form, sound and meaning, speech is the first attribute, and human language is first formed in the form of speech, and there is a language without writing in the world, but there is no language without speech, and speech plays a decisive supporting role in language. [2]

Phonology, the sound of language, is the carrier of the language symbol system. It is emitted by the human organ of articulation, loaded with certain linguistic meaning. Language relies on speech to realize its social functions. Language is a combination of sound and meaning of the symbol system, the sound of the language and the meaning of the language is closely linked, therefore, although the language is a kind of sound, but with the general sound has the essential difference. Speech is the human articulation organ issued by the function of differentiated meaning of the sound, can not be regarded as purely natural substances; speech is the most direct record of thinking activities of the symbolic system, is the language communication tools in the form of sound.

The physical basis of speech mainly consists of pitch, intensity, duration and timbre, which are also the four elements of speech. Pitch refers to the frequency of sound waves, that is, the number of vibrations per second; sound intensity refers to the size of the amplitude of the sound waves; sound length refers to the duration of the sound wave vibration, also known as the "duration"; timbre refers to the characteristics of the sound and the nature of the sound, also known as the "quality of sound".