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.

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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

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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

In 1873 he accompanied his father to Montreal, in Canada, where he was employed in teaching the system of visible speech.

From Heroes of the Telegraph by Munro, John

His father was Alexander Melville Bell, a Scotch educator, inventor of a system of visible speech, and author of some text-books on elocution.

From Great Inventions and Discoveries by Piercy, Willis Duff

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