visible speech

American  

noun

Phonetics.

1. the representation in graphic or pictorial form of characteristics of speech, as by means of sound spectrograms.

2. the system of handwritten phonetic symbols invented by Melville Bell in 1867 to provide a visually comprehensible rendition of speech sounds.

---

visible speech British  

noun

1. a system of phonetic notation invented by Alexander Melville Bell (1819–1905) that utilized symbols based on the schematic representation of the articulations used for each speech sound

---

Etymology

Origin of visible speech

First recorded in 1850–55

---

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

visible speech

A trained eye can easily read this "visible speech."

From Time Magazine Archive

Most immediate use of visible speech will be in teaching the totally deaf to talk.

From Time Magazine Archive

A later and better system is that called "visible speech."

From Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Volume 17, No. 100, April, 1876 by Various

While lecturing in Boston on his system of teaching visible speech, the elder Bell received a request to locate in that city and take up his work in its schools.

From Masters of Space Morse, Thompson, Bell, Marconi, Carty by Walter Kellogg Towers

He was also professor of Vocal Physiology at Boston University where he had courses in lip reading, or a system of visible speech, which his father had evolved.

From Ted and the Telephone by William F. (William Frederick) Stecher

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---