The zones of the Neocortex involved in language, and especially in speech, have been identified by careful observations of the effects both of cortical stimulation and of the effects of surgery on human behavior. Accumulating results from many such patients has made it possible to construct statistically defined regions of the Neocortex concerned with language processes.
Spoken language is functionally organized by the left hemisphere in more than 90% of right-handed persons and 70% of left-handed people (and those who are ambidextrous), have Left Hemisphere language dominance. Localization of language within the dominant hemisphere is usually found within the left perisylvian region, including portions of the Temporal, Parietal, and Frontal lobes. The most important zones include the superior, middle, and posterior portions of the Temporal lobes and adjacent areas of the Parietal lobes. 
Spoken language carries two types of information: that which is derived directly from the content, and that which is inferred from the tone of voice. There is little doubt that the former is a function of the Left Hemisphere, and there is good reason to believe that the latter is a function of the Right Hemisphere.
Audioperception appears to be hemisphere specific for Music as well. Specific to the right Temporal lobe are the perceptions of certain characteristics of music, namely pitch discrimination, loudness, rhythm, time, timbre, and tonal memory. Timbre describes the ability to distinguish between complex sounds that differ only in harmonic structure. Tonal memory is demonstrated by an individual's ability to compare two tonal patterns played twice in raped sucession, (the sequence is changed in the second play), and identify by its number in the sequence, the note that has changed at the second playing.
Musical sounds differ from each other in three ways: loudness, quality, and pitch.
Loudness refers to the quantitative magnitude of a sound as determined by an individual. Loudness, although related to the intensity of a sound as is measured in «Decibels,» is in reality a subjective determination.
In music, loudness is described by such terms as very loud, soft, very soft, and so forth. Quality refers to the characteristic of a sound by which it can be distinguished from other sounds of similar pitch and loudness. For example, we can distinguish the sound of a violin from that of a trombone even though they may play the same note at the same loudness. The French word Timbre is normally used to describe this character of sound. Pitch refers to the position of sound in a musical scale, as judged by the listener. There is more to it than the frequency of the sound!
(See The Decibel )
Take as an example, the musical note middle C.
This note can be described as a pattern of sound frequencies. When played on a piano, the spectrographic display of the steady-state portion of middle C shows the lowest amplitude of acustic energy of the sound pattern is 264 Hz (known as its Fundamental Frequency). The sound frequencies above the fundamental are known as overtones. Integer multiples of the fundemental are further denoted as harmonics. For complex tones at this fundamental frequency, the first five harmonics are dominant in the perception of pitch. If the fundamental frequency is removed from the note middle C (264 Hz), with electronic filters, the overtones are sufficient to determine the pitch of the fundamental frequency - a phenomenon known as Periodicity Pitch. This ability is due to the fact that the difference between the frequencies of the various harmonics is equal to the fundamental frequency. Thus, the auditory system is able to determine this difference and we perceive the fundamental frequency (264 Hz).
It appears that it is the right Temporal lobe that is making this periodicity pitch discrimination. The right Temporal lobe has a special function in extracting pitch from sound, regardless of whether the sound is speech or music. There are however, a variety of other aspects of music that may be specially processed in the right Temporal lobe, the simplest being timbre, and more complex aspects such as musical scales, chords, and progressions, all of which are constructed from single musical notes.
Speech differs from music in several basic ways. First, the sounds of speech largely comes from three restricted ranges of frequencies referred to as Formants. Second, the same speech sounds vary from one context in which they are heard to another, yet they are all perceived the same. Third, speech sounds change very rapidly in relation to each other, and the sequential order of the sounds is critical to understanding. According to Liberman, we can perceive speech at rates up to 30 segments per second, although normal speech is in the order of 8 to 10 segments per second.
The sensory and motor avenues through which language is comprehended and expressed are known as language modalities: listening, reading, speaking, and writing. Listening (verbal comprehension) and reading are described as receptive language functions; while speaking and writing are considered expressive language functions.
The central language processor contains a specialized information base that can be subdivided into the basic components of language, commonly referred to as:
Phonology, Semantics, Syntax, & Vocabulary !
Phonology (Sound Structure):
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Phonology refers to the sounds of a language and the rules for combining those sounds into meaningful syllables and words. This includes Articulation
and Prosody.
Speaking requires the ability to make the sounds of vowels and consonants, which will then be placed in different combinations to form words and sentences:
Articulation !
Prosody (from Greek for song), on the other hand, contends with the tone or accent of the spoken language (i.e., rhythm, inflection, timbre, and melody). Usually, the term is used to refer to the loudness of voice, the relative duration of different phonemes (the smallest sound unit which, in terms of the phonetic sequences of sounds, controls meaning), and the vocal pitch. The closest physical correlations are intensity, time pattern, and vocal frequency, respectively.
Semantics (Meanings):
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Refers to knowledge of the meaning of word combinations that goes beyond the meaning of the words that have been combined. In addition to word recognition and verbal meaning, concepts and visual meaning are considered.
Syntax (Grammar):
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The rules for ordering and altering words in utterances to establish the subject or object of the sentence, the tense of verbs, whether a noun is singular or plural, etc., falls within the perview or syntax. Sequencing of words, their Relationships and Grammar are considered.
Vocabulary:
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Refers to the actual words of a spoken language and their associated meanings. At first glance this may seem simple, however, with greater focus we discover that these spoken words can become much more complicated.
(See 
Reading )
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