Face image
In the field of education for the deaf and the hard of hearing, mouth image refers to the visually perceptible posture of the lower face area and the lips during the production of spoken language words. The face image is important both in lip reading and in the use of sign language .
General
In human speech production, not only the speaking tools but also the outer mouth area and the lips are actuated in a certain way with every word. With individual small differences, this is more or less similar for most people. The differentiated mouth-posture patterns allow in principle lip-reading of spoken language.
In English , the visually visible face image is referred to as "viseme" in alignment with the term phoneme .
Importance in lip reading
The execution and position of the visions are systematically aware to a certain extent, especially in the field of education for the deaf and hard of hearing, and can be clearly illustrated. The lip-reading is in this area with the practical demonstration and "read" exercise typical mouth positions and mouth image sequences practiced and trained.
Often times, mouth images cannot completely reproduce the complete formation of a word, but only parts of it, specifically those parts of the word that lead to particularly clear and typical mouth positions when speaking. Sounds, which are mainly produced in the speech apparatus of the larynx or by the position of the tongue, can be read less clearly or not at all on the face of the mouth. For example, the visions of "Mama" and "Papa" look the same.
In addition, the appearance of a sound is changed by the following or introduced sound ( coarticulation ). Teachers at schools for the hearing impaired also consciously design their mouth image to make it easier to read difficult words, for example to make an "L" easier to recognize, the tongue is not placed on the inside of the incisors, but visibly on the lower edge of the incisors to make the sound to symbolize visually.
Importance of using sign language
Face images are also used to support the use of sign language . The -ch in “book” is not visible on the lips, which is why the sign BUCH is only accompanied by the mouth image “BU”. In the case of inflections of spoken words, the basic forms are usually used as mouth images. For example, nouns and person words are used in the singular (/ MANN / and not / MÄNNER), activity words are used in their stem or nominal form (/ ESS- / or / ESSEN / and not / I ESSE /).
With the mouth image also can be the same or similar gestures are varied in meaning. In German and Austrian sign language, for example, the signs SISTER and BROTHER have the same manual form and can only be differentiated from each other by the accompanying face image / BRU / or / SCHWEST / or / SCHW. The image of the mouth can determine the meaning of a sign more precisely. With the face image / BIBLE / the sign BUCH gets the more precise meaning "Bible".
literature
- Birgit Jacobsen: 1,000 basic signs for educators. With face and sign writing. Self-published, Hamburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-9812401-6-0 .