What is speech and language?

Speech and language are similar but slightly different concepts.

Language is made up of socially shared rules that include the following:

• Semantics or meaning (e.g., "stern" can mean "severity of manner" or "the back of a boat")
• How to make new words (e.g., friend, friendly, unfriendly)
• Grammar (e.g., "I walked to the new restaurant" rather than "walk I restaurant new")
• Social context (e.g., "Could you please open the window?" versus "Hey, open the window now!")

Speech is the verbal means of communicating. Speech consists of the following:

• Articulation: How speech sounds are made
• Voice: The use of the vocal folds and breathing to produce sound (e.g., hoarseness, breathiness, projection)
• Fluency and prosody: The rhythm, intonation, stress, and related attributes of speech

When someone has trouble understanding other people (receptive language), or explaining thoughts, ideas and feelings (expressive language), that is a language disorder.

When someone cannot produce speech sounds correctly or fluently, or has voice problems, that is a speech disorder.

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