Aids to the Pronunciation of Irish/Chapter 1
CHAPTER I.
The Organs of Speech.
1. Air is driven by the lungs through the windpipe (m, m, m, in Fig. I.) into the larynx (A), popularly known in a man as “Adam’s apple.” Across the interior of the larynx are stretched two elastic ligaments (b), called the vocal chords. (Fig. II. shows the chords open; Fig. III. shows them shut.) These are firmly fixed in the front portion of the larynx, and are attached at their other extremities to two pieces of cartilage (b, b, Fig. II.), by means of which the opening between the chords—called the glottis (a, Fig. II.) can be narrowed or completely closed at pleasure. The chords themselves can be tightened or relaxed by means of the muscles attached to them. Having passed the larynx, the air enters the pharynx (c, c, Fig. I.), which is the cavity between the larynx and the mouth. From the pharynx the air enters the mouth, passes over the tongue (J), between it and the palate, and then escapes between the lips; or it passes up behind the soft palate (d) into the nasal cavity (K, L), and then out by the nostrils.
2. The roof of the mouth consists of two portions, the hard and the soft palate. The two parts may be easily felt by pressing the finger on the palate just inside the teeth, and then sliding it back until the palate yields to the pressure. The pendulous portion of the palate at the back of the mouth is called the uvula (F). When the uvula is pressed back the passage from the pharynx to the nasal cavity is closed and the air is forced to escape by the mouth.
Just above the inside of the upper teeth there is a hard rim (g) which can easily be felt with the point of the tongue. We shall frequently refer to this as the hard rim.
PLATE I..jpg)
a The larynx (Adam’s Apple); b vocal chords; c pharynx; d soft palate; e hard palate; f uvula; g hard rim; h upper teeth; i lower teeth; j tongue; k passage to nasal cavity; l nasal cavity; m m m windpipe.
Figs. II. and III. show the vocal chords as viewed from above:—a the glottis; b the cartilage to which the chords are fastened.