Articulatory

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ɑː(ɹ)ˈtɪk.jə.lə.t(ə.)ɹɪ/

Definitions

1. Connected to the specific movements and configurations of the speech organs necessary for producing phonetic sounds
2. Pertaining to how the mouth and vocal tract move to create speech sounds
3. Involving the physical adjustments of tongue, lips, and other parts to form spoken language

Etymology: "Articulatory" is built from "articulate" plus the suffix "-ory", and the suffix's own path is longer than the stem's. The ending traces back through Latin "-tōrius", a combination of the agent suffix "-tor" and the adjective-forming "-ius", which passed through Old Latin and Proto-Italic forms before reaching Middle English as "-orie" and later becoming the modern "-ory". So the word is a fairly recent assembly from parts that have each been in use for a very long time. The stem "articulate" comes from Latin "articulare", meaning to divide into joints or distinct parts, from "articulus", a little joint. That literal sense of jointing is the thread that connects the word to speech: a speaker's tongue, lips and palate divide a continuous stream of breath into separate, jointed sounds. "Articulate" was first applied to clear, well-jointed speech before it described people who expressed themselves well, and "articulatory" narrows that idea to the physical movements behind it.

Synonyms: phonetic, speech, vocal, pronunciation, enunciative