Palate

“ That velvety softness—that subdued strength, faintly recalling Burgundy, and that delicious bouquet, would all be clean thrown away on most people. I declare, I believe a refined palate is just as rare as a correct ear ”

“ The palate, which at first perceived only the coarse and violent qualities of either, will, as it becomes more experienced, acquire greater subtilty and delicacy of discrimination, perceiving in both agreeable or disagreeable qualities at first unnoticed, which on continued experience will probably become more influential than the first impressions ”

“ The concurrence of teeth, palate and tongue, in the formation of speech should seem to be indispensable, and yet men have spoken distinctly though wanting a tongue, and to whom, therefore, teeth and palate were superfluous. ”

“ Mens palates are as various as their faces, and like a good ordinary we would offer up a dish for every palate. In the time of the ancient Romans we are told that the fat paps of the sow where held a great dainty. ”

“ Nor tongue and palate, whereby we flavour feel, Present more problems for more work of thought. Firstly, we feel a flavour in the mouth, When forth we squeeze it, in chewing up our food,— As any one perchance begins to squeeze With hand and dry a sponge with water soaked. Next, all which forth we squeeze is spread about Along the pores and intertwined paths Of the loose-textured tongue. And so, when smooth The bodies of the oozy flavour, then Delightfully they touch, delightfully They treat all spots, around the wet and trickling Enclosures of the tongue. ”

“ The palate is the seat of taste, and its office is to judge what food is agreeable to the stomach, and what not, by that is both the quality and quantity of food for the stomach discerned: the very same office the meseraik veins perform to the liver. ”

“ The beauty of the human mouth and lips, the delicacy of their formation and tints, their power of expression, which is only inferior to that of the eyes, and their elevated position as the media with the palate, tongue, and teeth, by which we communicate our thoughts to others in an audible form, need scarcely be dilated on here. ”

“ Palate, the hutch of tasty lust,
Desire not to be rinsed with wine:
The can must be so sweet, the crust
So fresh that come in fasts divine! ”

“ They should not only be nicely prepared, but much care and ingenuity should be shown in the arraying of them on the platter. To prepare palate-pleasing entrees one must study to please the eye quite as much as the palate. ”

“ The taste and the smell, like the touch, convey more direct intelligence than the eye and the ear, and are less likely than those senses to aid in misleading the imagination. We have seen the palate, in the case of the porridge-fed lunatic, enter its protest against the acquiescence of eyes, ears, and touch, in the gay visions which gilded the patient’s confinement. ”

“ The tongue, which has so much to do with talking, has a good deal to do with tasting. It is indeed one of the chief instruments by which the sensation of taste is experienced. The palate is also another organ of importance in the perception of taste. ”

“ In fact the larger the opening that can be maintained, the broader and better the tone. The author was himself unable fully to appreciate this until he had become able to sense the position of the soft palate during vocalization. [Pg 12]
THE HARD PALATE AND TEETH
The hard palate and upper teeth form in part the walls of the mouth. As they are solid fixtures, nothing can be done in the way of training. They furnish a point of impingement in articulation, and play their part in sympathetic resonance.
The bones which form the roof of the mouth serve also for the floor of the nasal cavity. ”

“ To these matters I have already called attention in a previous publication, in connection with the man who was deprived of his larynx by a surgical operation, but not of his power of speech.
A similar experiment may be made in regard to breathing. By making the soft palate, representing the thorax, rigid, you will not be able to inspire, though you may expire. By making the bottom of the mouth close to your teeth (the soft palate of the lower jaw) , representing the abdomen, rigid, you will not be able to expire, though you may inspire. With a German the precisely opposite facts prevail. ”

“ What it gathers together thus, rolls by degrees on its surface into a ball, which at last finds itself fixed between the palate and the tongue in such a manner that it cannot escape; at which moment the tongue presses its tip against the upper front teeth, forms of itself an inclined plane, and—but stop! we are getting on too fast. ”

“ Though, for making the liquids, the tip of the tongue and the sides of the tongue are used, yet the requisite is not any exact adjustment of the tip, but an imperfect contact with the palate. For the th, the tip is used along with the edges of the tongue; but no perfect adjustment is required, either to the edges of the teeth, or to the junction of the teeth with the palate, where the sound may equally well be made. ”

“ In a general way it can be said that the medium tones of the voice have their focusing point in the middle part of the palate, the lower tones coming nearer to the teeth to be centralized and the high notes giving the sensation of finding their focusing point in the high arch at the back of the mouth and going out, as it were, through the crown of the head. ”

“ One’s palate-gusto is distinctly enhanced by something pleasant to look upon, by something artistic to accompany the mere mechanism of mastication, by a general sense of beauty and non-flamboyant restfulness. ”

“ Thus, a highly discriminating palate may have saved the life of animals and savages, but what can its subtleness do nowadays beyond making us into gormandisers and winebibbers, or, at best, into cooks and tasters for the service of gormandising and winebibbing persons? ”

“ They cause his voice to be “stuffy,” thick, and unmusical. Though, except in the case of a cleft palate, they cannot be seen with the naked eye, they are often accompanied by a visible and suggestive granular condition of the wall at the back of the throat. Their presence may easily be determined by the medical attendant gently hooking the end of the index-finger round the back of the soft palate. ”

“ Bring the tone forward, direct it against the hard palate just above the upper teeth, send it up through the head with a vigorous impulse of the diaphragm. You must always feels the tone in the nasal cavities. ”

“ Every pitch in the human voice has its corresponding chamber of resonance, formed by the nares, by the trachea, by the pharynx, or by the mouth, and sometimes by more than one of these. The transient resonant chambers are formed by the adjustment of the lips, and by the relation of the tongue to the upper gum, the hard palate, the soft palate, and the pharynx. ”

“ About the same time, the Palate is no longer contented with being employed as a mere shovel to the Stomach,—and as it finds its master becomes every day more difficult to please—learns to be a more watchful Purveyor. ”

“ Your plats are the most perfect things—models of tasteful cookery.”
“Je veux le croire, Mademoiselle. But I refer to the business of the palette, not of the palate. There comes a limit to welcoming praise of other people at one’s own expense.”
“If I praised a picture of yours it would be in spite of my not understanding it ”

“ In like manner, many passages in Shakespeare and others of the best writers in all languages can only be spoken with effect by those with a mastery over the tongue, lips, soft palate, etc., but above all, the tongue.
Important as are the lips, many persons tend to use them too much, and the tongue too little, in speaking and singing. They attempt to make up for a mouth almost closed in front by the teeth, by excessive movements of the lips. ”

“ This is done by putting the lips, teeth, tongue, and palate in their proper position, and then expelling each sound from the throat in the same manner that the syllable "ah!" is uttered in endeavoring to deter a child from something it is about to do ”

“ 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.
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 ”

“ The main point however is, that our tongue and palate have been trained and fashioned from our childhood to particular tastes, likings, and antipathies; so that often the very best, most judicious, and admirable thing, if it come across us on a sudden as a novelty, as something we have never set tooth on, and thus give a shock to all our prepossessions, will be disregarded and abused ”

“ But the power of using the tongue, lips and palate in the formation of words comes through the slow strengthening and development of the muscles of those organs by the constant effort to use them in speech. ”

“ The tongue, soft palate, and lips are the most movable parts, and so have the largest share in giving color and meaning to sounds—i.e., they are the organs most important in the formation of the elements of words. ”

“ In the fourth septennial period of life there appear in most people two teeth that are called wisdom teeth.”48
There is a passage in this same book De carnibus, in which the great importance of the teeth for clear pronunciation of words is alluded to: “The body,” says Hippocrates,49 “attracts the air into itself; the air expelled through the void produces a sound, because the head resounds. The tongue articulates, and by its movements, coming into contact with the palate and the teeth, renders the sounds distinct.” ”

“ Look upon the lips: their lively colour, freshness, figure, seat, and proportion, with the other features, render the face most beautiful. The mouth, by the correspondence of its motions with those of the eyes, animates, gladdens, suddens, softens, or troubles the face, and by sensible marks expresses every passion. The lips not only open to receive food, but by their suppleness and the variety of their motions serve likewise to vary the sounds that form speech. ”

“ If our mouth were like the sea, our lips like its waves, our tongue like the rugged mountains, then we could praise you, glorify you, honor you, bless you. You know it, who fears you from the heart and who confesses you only: with the lips. With a pure mouth you are blessed, with a tongue of praise you are praised. ”

“ He saw in her face that which is higher than beauty, but is only seen and understood by its spiritual kindred. The mouth, that unmistakable key to character, because it is the door through which the soul expresses itself, was perfect in shape and exquisitely sensitive, though the other features had a dash of boyish ruggedness in them. ”

“ The mouth should be small, and the lips not of equal thickness; they should be well turned, small rather than gross, soft even to the eye, and with a living red in them. A truly pretty mouth is like a red rose-bud that is beginning to blow. ”

“ I have bemoaned the fact that, due to the softness of my teeth since boyhood, my mouth is one mass of metallic fillings and crowns, rendering it impossible for me to test the efficiency of my life’s work. ”

“ His mouth also marks a supreme sadness, which depresses the lower lip and seems to weigh upon it, while the upper lip, contracted from the top to the bottom, expresses at once both physical suffering and that of the soul. Under the mouth there is an expression of indignation that seems to protest against an undeserved suffering, and is revealed in the nostrils, which swell out and enlarge and draw upwards. ”

“ The under lip is little more than its supporter, the rosy cushion on which the crown of majesty reposes. If the parts of any two [Pg 60] bodies can be pronounced to be exactly adapted to each other, such are the lips of man, when the mouth is closed. Words are the pictures of the mind. ”

“ A tranquil harmony pervades all the tones. The lips delicate, somewhat thin, turning up at the angles; the eye small and brilliant; the nose a trifle saucy,—everything in this countenance breathes gentleness, subtlety, archness. ”

“ Lips of beautiful form and of vermillion hue, teeth which are small, equal, slightly rounded, white, clean, and well arranged, and a pure breath, are the circumstances which constitute a beautiful mouth. ”

“ We not merely see the delicate, thin, pale lips, thrown back head and neck, and the wide-opened, dilated, greyish eyes; we imagine in our mind the vague delights after which those lips are thirsting as the half-closed pale flowers thirst for the rain-drops, the ecstasy of fulfilled hope which makes the veins of the neck pulse and the head fall back in weariness of inner quivering ”