0796 – Bits About Lips

2023.03.07 – 0796 – Bits About Lips

Bits About Lips

Lips are more than just the ‘lipstick bit’, their muscles extend into the cheeks and so affect (and are affected by) the whole of the face and expression. Holding tension in yur lips, or barely using them when speaking (some people rely on their tongue to do a lot of the hard articulatory work), can restrict your understandability, as how you hold your lips helps create word-sound groups.

Stiff lips may be a result of the perceived danger of sharing:

·        The ‘stiff upper lip’ – being afraid to show and share emotion in your face and mouth, from a wince of pain or a smile of pleasure, because of how you were brought up, that you shouldn’t show your feelings

·        Mouth embarrassment – a worry of what others may think of stained or misaligned teeth, braces, gaps or fillings, a cold sore…

·        Content concern – the worry you may have about what others may think about what you say, that you may be through stupid. You are literally holding back your voice, your thoughts, feeling, emotions and contributions. 

·        Articulation and accent worries – maybe there’s an idea that your accent is in some way not good enough or your articulation not clear, so even though you want the world to your words, they struggle to fly-free because of how others may judge the voice you use to explain them.

All this can lead to mumbling, stiff lips, a stiff jaw and a muffled sound, instead of the lips being used to their full capability as part of intentional articulation. Articulation? Yes because as we saw many episodes ago (Number 89), the lips are an integral part of saying consonants ‘p’, ‘b’ and ‘m’. Say the phrase “Peter’s many books” slowly and consider the initial letters and how the sounds are formed. Now say the phrase “very few westerns” and you’ll notice that the lips are also used to form, to a lesser extent, the initial letters ‘f’, ‘v’ and ‘w’. But it’s not just consonants. The lips help shape the sounds ‘oo’, ‘oh’ and  aw’, helping give more resonance and colour (“Oh! Awesome oozings!”)

Along with articulation, animation also helps tell a story and draw in a listener. We have already seen how facial expressions help us express emotions vocally, and that includes the use of the lips and cheeks. So it’s important to keep them in working order!

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