[A visual model of articulation]

Speech disorders become more and more important in clinical area of phoniatrics. It is striking during consultation and treatment of patients that there exist only humble concrete notions concerning speech organs and articulatory movements. Using the computational model introduced here speech organs and speech movements of unrestricted utterances can be displayed in the mediosagittal plane. Articulation is described concisely by using nine basic parameters. The time pattern of these parameter-values defines the articulatory motion plan of an utterance and gives a comprehensive overview of the spatio-temporal structure of the appertaining speech movements. The use of the model in speech therapy shall make patients sensitive for the existence of speech articulators--especially for those which are normally not directly visible (back tongue region, soft palate)--and help to understand and memorize the appertaining movement patterns.