Video narration
What's that buzz you feel in your throat when you hum? When you hum, air from your lungs rises and passes between your vocal folds-the soft edges that come close together in your throat. As air moves through them, it sets them vibrating. That vibration creates the humming sound you can hear. The buzz you feel is a clue to this airflow-driven vibration, not a direct measurement of the folds themselves. But that buzz isn't finished speech. Your mouth, tongue, and lips shape the sound as it passes out, turning a simple vibration into the different sounds of words. Some speech sounds are made without vocal-fold vibration at all. So when you hum, that buzz is only the beginning. That hum's buzz is lung air setting your vocal folds vibrating; your mouth and tongue turn it into speech.