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Glite Dictionary
speech sound

speech sound

4.5
A single sound that people make when they talk
  • noun
  • /spiːtʃ saʊnd/
  • Specialized
translation icon : sonido del habla
  • During language acquisition, learners must learn to both perceive and produce the speech sounds in the language of their speech community.
  • speech sound production
  • speech sound disorders
  • speech sound errors

So we've done a lot of our work looking at how the temporal lobe processes speech sounds because we're looking for where the seizures start.

Examples

  • Single-word tests of speech sound production typically use picture stimuli representing common words.

    Academic text (2015)

  • The therapist helped the child improve the clarity of his speech sounds during their sessions.

  • Thus, the child will try to produce speech sounds with the greatest possible contrast.

    Academic text (2011)

  • Hearing loss in this range of sound makes speech sound muffled.

    Academic text (2008)

  • The GFTA was administered to determine the presence of speech sound errors.

    Academic text (2013)

  • Auditory temporal processing determines the development of adequate representations of speech sounds.

    Academic text (2010)

  • As he practiced daily, he became more confident in producing the various speech sounds required for clear communication.

  • Understanding the different speech sounds in a language is essential for effective language learning.

Synonyms

phone
vsspeech sound
  • Specialized
266 9.8

An individual speech sound made when you speak

has the same meaning but uses general rather than technical phrasing

Surface Forms

speech sound singular
speech sounds plural

Morphology

speech + sound

The meaning 'an individual audible unit of speech' is directly and compositionally derived from 'speech' (spoken language production) + 'sound' (an audible vibration). This noun-noun compound follows a regular, cross-linguistically common pattern, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the MWE meaning.

Etymology

Speech sound is a phrase for one small sound we make when we speak: speech means talking and sound is what we hear, so a speech sound is 'a single sound' in speech. That's why linguists use it to mean 'an individual sound'.