Speech, speaking, or vocal communication was the expression of the ability to express communication using one's mouth and vocal cords to articulate sounds, such as a voice.
Processing speech
In humanoids, the speech center was the part of the brain capable of producing speech. (TOS: "Spock's Brain")
On the Soong-type android, the primary speech processors produced speech. (TNG: "Power Play") The Federation's computer voice was generated by speech processors as well. (VOY: "The Haunting of Deck Twelve")
Starfleet's EMH program interacts with its patients through a number of speech recognition protocols. (VOY: "Message in a Bottle")
Speech in medicine
- Dyslexia
- Mute
- Speech pattern
- Speech therapy
- Stutter
Speech for telepaths
When Lwaxana Troi was visiting the USS Enterprise-D, she told Deanna Troi to communicate telepathically instead of speaking. Despite this, she spoke frequently. (TNG: "Haven")
The Cairn were physically capable of speaking, but preferred to use telepathy. When they wanted to join the United Federation of Planets, they began to learn to speak in order to communicate with species incapable of telepathy. (TNG: "Dark Page")