What Is larynx

The larynx is the speaking and breathing organ. It is a triangular little box situated at the top of the windpipe and continues with it. The topmost angular point forms what is commonly called "Adam's apple."

The female too has an Adam's apple; in fact she had it first then gave it to Adam. But hers is naturally curved and doesn't show. The larynx is located in front of the feedpipe (gullet or esophagus) and its opening is right below the back of the tongue.

The opening of the larynx has a flap (the epiglottis) which covers it while food is being swallowed into the esophagus and the top of the larynx goes hiding under the back of the tongue.

But when a person talks the flap opens, and if he is swallowing food while talking some of it will get into the opening of the larynx, and unless it is quickly expelled by gagging and coughing he may suffocate.

The larynx is made up of two cartilage rings, the top one called the "thyroid cartilage" which forms the solid, wide triangular part, and below it the narrower, round ring called the "cricoid cartilage." There are four little plates of cartilage in the back part of the larynx opening, to which the vocal cords are attached.

In the front the vocal cords are attached right inside the Adam's apple, the topmost part of the larynx. The vocal cords are two white elastic bands covered with the mucous membrane of the throat. The vocal cords are worked by tiny muscles attached to small cartilages in back of the larynx.

Just above the vocal cords are two folds of membrane which are called the false vocal cords. On inspiration, the vocal cords elongate and the opening of the larynx (glottis) becomes large, and on expiration they contract and shorten and the opening becomes small.

The voice should be considered a special sense, as hearing or seeing is, although it is not classed as such. The voice is produced by the vibration of the vocal cords as a result of the moving current of air in expiration, just as we are able to whistle by tightening the lips and making the mouth opening smaller, except that the larynx does it automati, cally.

The voice is produced by the larynx but speech, the formation of words, is a result of modulation and regulation of the voice by the tongue, teeth, lips, mouth and nose. The cavities of the mouth and nose also act as sounding boards or resonators to the voice.

The singing voice is a natural gift and is enhanced by cultivation. Men have longer vocal cords than women; that is why their voice is of a lower and deeper pitch.