JSS 1 ENGLISH LANGUAGE: Organs of Speech & Pronouns

Core Concepts

Welcome, JSS 1 students! Today, we will explore two important areas in English Language: how we make sounds when we speak, and how we use words to avoid repeating names.

• Organs of Speech: These are the parts of our body that work together to produce the sounds we use in speaking. We will focus on how they create pure vowel sounds.
• Pronouns: These are words that stand in for nouns (names of people, places, animals, or things) to make our sentences clearer and smoother.

Key Points

1. Organs of Speech

Our voice is made when air from our lungs passes through different parts of our body. These parts are called the Organs of Speech.

• Lungs: They push air out to start the sound.
• Windpipe (Trachea): The tube that carries air from the lungs to the voice box.
• Larynx (Voice Box): Contains the vocal cords. When air passes through, the vocal cords vibrate to make voiced sounds.
• Pharynx: The space behind your mouth and nose.
• Mouth and Nose: Air can leave through either or both.
• Tongue: A very important organ that moves to shape sounds.
• Lips: Can be rounded, spread, or closed to make different sounds.
• Teeth: Used to make sounds like /f/ and /v/.
• Alveolar Ridge: The hard ridge behind your upper front teeth.
• Hard Palate: The hard roof of your mouth.
• Soft Palate (Velum): The soft part at the back of the roof of your mouth. It can move up or down to direct air to the mouth or nose.

Pure Vowel Sounds (Monophthongs)

Vowel sounds are made when air flows out of the mouth freely, without any blockage by the tongue, teeth, or lips. The main difference between vowel sounds comes from the position of your tongue in your mouth (high, mid, low, front, central, back) and the shape of your lips (rounded or spread).

Here are some examples of pure vowel sounds:

• /i:/ as in "sheep", "feet" (long 'ee' sound)
• /ɪ/ as in "sit", "fish" (short 'i' sound)
• /e/ as in "bed", "pen" (short 'e' sound)
• /æ/ as in "cat", "map" (short 'a' sound)
• /ɑ:/ as in "car", "father" (long 'ah' sound)
• /ɒ/ as in "pot", "dog" (short 'o' sound)
• /u:/ as in "boot", "moon" (long 'oo' sound)
• /ʌ/ as in "cup", "sun" (short 'uh' sound)

2. Pronoun

A pronoun is a word that replaces a noun in a sentence. We use pronouns to avoid repeating the same noun many times, which makes our writing and speaking sound better and flow more smoothly.

Example: Instead of "Mary went to the market. Mary bought yam. Mary came home," we say "Mary went to the market. She bought yam. She came home." Here, 'She' is a pronoun replacing 'Mary'.

Types of Pronouns

1. Personal Pronouns: These refer to specific people or things. They change form depending on if they are the subject (doing the action) or object (receiving the action) of a verb.
   • Subject Pronouns: I, you, he, she, it, we, they.
     Examples: I am a student. He plays football. They are happy.
   • Object Pronouns: me, you, him, her, it, us, them.
     Examples: Give the book to me. My mother called him.
2. Possessive Pronouns: These show ownership or possession.
   • mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs.
     Examples: That book is mine. The blue car is theirs.
3. Reflexive Pronouns: These refer back to the subject of the sentence, often used when the subject and object are the same person or thing. They end in -self or -selves.
   • myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves.
     Examples: I hurt myself. She cooked the food herself.
4. Demonstrative Pronouns: These point to specific things or people.
   • this, that, these, those.
     Examples: This is my bag. Those are beautiful flowers.

Summary

We learned that our Organs of Speech (like the tongue, lips, and vocal cords) work together to produce all speech sounds. We focused on pure vowel sounds, which are made with an open mouth and are shaped by the tongue's position and lip shape. We also discussed Pronouns, which are words that replace nouns to make our sentences clearer and avoid repetition. We looked at different types of pronouns, including Personal, Possessive, Reflexive, and Demonstrative pronouns, and saw examples of how each is used.