Palate
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| Palate | |
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| Head and neck. | |
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| Palate exhibiting torus palatinus. | |
| Latin | palatum |
| Gray's | subject #242 1112 |
| MeSH | Palate |
| Dorlands/Elsevier | Palate |
The palate (pronounced /ˈpælɨt/) is the roof of the mouth in humans and vertebrate animals. It separates the oral cavity from the nasal cavity. The palate is divided into two parts, the anterior bony hard palate, and the posterior fleshy soft palate or velum. The maxillary nerve branch of the trigeminal nerve (V) supplies sensory innervation to the palate.
As the roof of the mouth was once considered the seat of the sense of taste, palate can also refer to this sense itself, as in the phrase "a discriminating palate". By further extension, the flavor of a food (particularly beer or wine) may be called its palate, as when a wine is said to have an oaky palate.
[edit] Etymology
The name is Middle English and is probably derived from the Latin palatum or the Old French palat
[edit] Function
When functioning in conjunction with other parts of the mouth the palate produces certain sounds, particularly velar, palatal, palatalized, postalveolar, alveolo-palatal, and uvular consonants.
[edit] See also
- Hard palate
- Soft palate
- Cleft palate
- Language
- Vocal tract
- pallet and palette, objects whose names are homophonous with palate for many English-speakers
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