Thursday, November 21, 2013

Paisley thyroid cartilages are all the rage this year.

The larynx is going to be my best friend in the years to come, so I figure I should give it an introduction on the blog.  It's time to MEET YOUR LARYNX!

Alright, everyone touch your throat, just under your chin.  That first protrusion you feel is your larynx, or your voicebox.  Keep your hand on your throat and try the following three things:

1.  Say "buzzzzzzzzzzzzzz".  You feel the vibration?  That's because to make a voiced sound like "zzzzz", your larynx closes the vocal folds.  The air flowing through pushes them open and they snap closed—that's the vibration.  How quickly the folds vibrate determines the frequency, or pitch of your speech.  Closing your vocal folds is what allows you to use your voice.

2.  Now say "hissssssssssss".  Your throat shouldn't be vibrating as much.  That's because for a sound like "ssssssssss", your vocal folds are open, and they don't vibrate.  When you say sounds like this, the vocal folds open up.  So when you're talking, they probably open and close, open and close—in addition to vibrating every time they're closed.  (I'll describe this in more detail in another post.)  It's quite a workout!

3.  Now you ready for something really freaky?  Swallow.  Feel as your larynx is pulled up toward the base of your tongue.  This is to protect you from breathing your food when you swallow.  (When I first learned this years ago, I couldn't stop thinking about it for days.  Every time I swallowed, I could feel my voice box going up my throat.)

I feel that is an adequate introduction to your larynx.  Now that you're acquainted with it, would you like to know what it looks like?

A few weeks ago, some of my girl friends got together and had a Dr. Who-watching and paper-larynx-making extravaganza.  (You know, a typical girls night in.)  Our Speech Science class had a larynx-making contest.  My larynx won!

This is a view from the front, looking diagonally (if this were your larynx, your chin would appear in the top left corner of the picture, sort of):


 Check out that gorgeous paisley thyroid cartilage.

And here it is from the back.  The weird tongue-looking thing is the epiglottis, which reaches back and covers up the vocal folds when you swallow.


Mmhmm.  VERY stylish.  If your thyroid cartilage is anything but paisley, I'd look into getting a replacement.  And fuzzy vocal folds are VERY chic.

1 comment:

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