Page:Aids to the Pronunciation of Irish - Christian Brothers.djvu/15



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. B