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

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

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 Stecher, William F. (William Frederick)

Mr. Bell was at this time an instructor in phonetics, or the art of visible speech, in Monroe's School of Oratory in Boston.

From Inventors by Hubert, Philip Gengembre

He occupied himself by teaching his father's system of visible speech among the Mohawk Indians.

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