Notice: This Contains English Only Content. Spanish and German not included.
This application was originally designed at the University of Iowa to help students learning how the sounds of different languages are produced. Since its production, it has become a milestone for phonetics teaching tools around the globe.
Sounds of Speech™ provides a comprehensive understanding of how, physiologically, each of the speech sounds of American English is formed. It includes animations, videos, and audio samples that describe the essential features of each of the consonants and vowels of American English. Sounds of Speech™ is especially useful for students studying English as a second language. Features include:
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Sounds of Speech FAQ
Is Sounds of Speech free?
Yes, Sounds of Speech is completely free and it doesn't have any in-app purchases or subscriptions.
Is Sounds of Speech legit?
⚠️ The Sounds of Speech app has poor ratings and negative feedback. Users seem unsatisfied with its performance or features.
As a speech pathologist, I purchased this to show my students how to produce certain sounds. Unfortunately, the animation of the tongue only represents what the middle of the tongue is doing, not the sides of the tongue. For example, for the /s/ sound, the sides of the tongue brace against the hard palate. The animation on the app, in contrast, suggests that the tongue never touches the hard palate to produce the /s/ sound.
Don't buy this app
I found the website very interesting. I thought the app would be the same as the website (including the English language). This was a false propagandist. The application does not present any learning tools (it is not the same as the website). Don't buy this app. Whoever created this app stole US$3.90 (plus tax) from me!
What happened to the website?!
I used to frequent the sounds of speech website when I was a SLP student. It was amazing and now doesn’t exist for English anymore and this app isn’t as good as the old website’s content. Why remove such a valuable resource for students and practitioners? Such a bummer
Video quality is not good
This app used to have excellent video quality. Something has happened and now they are degraded, pixelated, and show the video controls. Please fix. Thanks.
EDIT: 8/31/2021
Just following up. Is this ever going to be fixed?
Not what is was Too Bad
I used this site in the past and purchased the app hoping it was going to be similar to the desk top version. While it offers more languages, I don’t care for the app version. Everything was on one page per sound on the desktop version. I could see both the animated and live model version. It provided a profile and head on view. So much better before. Now, I have to jump between various pages and in the process lose the students attention and just not as effective.
I will use it because I paid for it but may opt for other visuals
Great app
I love this app! I wish that there were more languages, but I use it all the time.
What happened to the German?
The original website had German. Hopefully that will be added soon
The animations are misleading
The animations are misleading because the model pronounces final /p/ of “top” as aspirated when it is, in fact, unaspirated. She does this with all stops in word-final position. It’s incorrect. Moreover, there’s no modeling of the /t/ allophone [ɾ] as in “butter.”
Needs improvement
I used to love this site because it would give you a list of words examples for each sound . Another downside of the app is that it doesn’t show you the sound for the complete word , rather it breaks it into parts but I want to be able to hear its pronunciation in both forms . As an English language student and linguistics student I find it a bit problematic not to have enough examples . Please make the app quality as good as your site . A big thanks though for all the good work you have already done .
Great App for Graduate School
I love this app!! I am a graduate student for speech and have used this app many times to double check place, manner and voice. The app is very user friendly and straight forward. I love the video examples in animation as well as the real life videos of people making each phoneme. The app is also visually pleasing with clear colors of each anatomical structure. A great tool during my schooling.
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