the.com/soft palate
The roof of your mouth that panics and seals off your nose when you swallow wrong.
means The soft, muscular back part of the roof of your mouth that rises to close off the nasal passage during swallowing and speech.
from From Latin palatum, meaning roof of the mouth, a word the Romans themselves likely borrowed from Etruscan — one of the few scraps of that vanished language still sitting in your skull. 'Soft' simply distinguishes it from the hard palate, the bony front part, since this back section is all muscle and mucous membrane with no bone to stiffen it.
- location
- Back third of mouth roof, muscle not bone
- snoring culprit
- Vibrates against throat tissue, makes the noise
- speech role
- Lowers for nasal sounds like m and n
- choking reflex
- Lifts to block food from entering nasal cavity