Language, Singing,

and the Vocal Mechanism

All text in articles have been reproduced from Encarta Encyclopedia 2002.
Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 2002. 1993-2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Diagrams are reproduced from Encarta Encyclopedia 2002 and gleaned from the Internet.
Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 2002. 1993-2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

LANGUAGE
I INTRODUCTION
Language, the principal means used by human beings to communicate with one
another. Language is primarily spoken, although it can be transferred to other
media, such as writing. If the spoken means of communication is unavailable,
as may be the case among the deaf, visual means such as sign language can be
used. A prominent characteristic of language is that the relation between a
linguistic sign and its meaning is arbitrary: There is no reason other than
convention among speakers of English that a dog should be called dog, and
indeed other languages have different names (for example, Spanish perro,
Russian sobaka, Japanese inu). Language can be used to discuss a wide range of
topics, a characteristic that distinguishes it from animal communication. The
dances of honey bees, for example, can be used only to communicate the
location of food sources (see Honey Bee: Communication). While the languagelearning abilities of apes have surprised manyand there continues to be
controversy over the precise limits of these abilitiesscientists and scholars
generally agree that apes do not progress beyond the linguistic abilities of a
two-year-old child.
A THE SOUNDS OF LANGUAGE
Because most languages are primarily spoken, an important part of the overall
understanding of language involves the study of the sounds of language.
Most sounds in the world's languagesand all sounds in some languages, such as
Englishare produced by expelling air from the lungs and modifying the vocal
tract between the larynx and the lips. For instance, the sound p requires
complete closure of the lips, so that air coming from the lungs builds up
pressure in the mouth, giving rise to the characteristic popping sound when the
lip closure is released. For the sound s, air from the lungs passes continuously
through the mouth, but the tongue is raised sufficiently close to the alveolar
ridge (the section of the upper jaw containing the tooth sockets) to cause
friction as it partially blocks the air that passes. Sounds also can be produced
by means other than expelling air from the lungs, and some languages use
these sounds in regular speech. The sound used by English speakers to express
annoyance, often spelled tsk or tut, uses air trapped in the space between the
front of the tongue, the back of the tongue, and the palate. Such sounds,
called clicks, function as regular speech sounds in the Khoisan languages of
southwestern Africa and in the Bantu languages of neighboring African peoples.

Phonetics is the field of language study concerned with the physical properties
of sounds, and it has three subfields. Articulatory phonetics explores how the
human vocal apparatus produces sounds. Acoustic phonetics studies the sound
waves produced by the human vocal apparatus. Auditory phonetics examines
how speech sounds are perceived by the human ear. Phonology, in contrast, is
concerned not with the physical properties of sounds, but rather with how they
function in a particular language. The following example illustrates the
difference between phonetics and phonology. In the English language, when the
sound k (usually spelled c) occurs at the beginning of a word, as in the word
cut, it is pronounced with aspiration (a puff of breath). However, when this
sound occurs at the end of a word, as in tuck, there is no aspiration.
Phonetically, the aspirated k and unaspirated k are different sounds, but in
English these different sounds never distinguish one word from another, and
English speakers are usually unaware of the phonetic difference until it is
pointed out to them. Thus English makes no phonological distinction between
the aspirated and unaspirated k. The Hindi language, on the other hand, uses
this sound difference to distinguish words such as kal (time), which has an
unaspirated k, and khal (skin), in which kh represents the aspirated k.
Therefore, in Hindi the distinction between the aspirated and unaspirated k is
both phonetic and phonological.
II LANGUAGE VARIETIES
Languages constantly undergo changes, resulting in the development of
different varieties of the languages.
A DIALECTS
A dialect is a variety of a language spoken by an identifiable subgroup of
people. Traditionally, linguists have applied the term dialect to geographically
distinct language varieties, but in current usage the term can include speech
varieties characteristic of other socially definable groups. Determining whether
two speech varieties are dialects of the same language, or whether they have
changed enough to be considered distinct languages, has often proved a
difficult and controversial decision. Linguists usually cite mutual intelligibility
as the major criterion in making this decision. If two speech varieties are not
mutually intelligible, then the speech varieties are different languages; if they
are mutually intelligible but differ systematically from one another, then they
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are dialects of the same language. There are problems with this definition,
however, because many levels of mutual intelligibility exist, and linguists must
decide at what level speech varieties should no longer be considered mutually
intelligible. This is difficult to establish in practice. Intelligibility has a large
psychological component: If a speaker of one speech variety wants to
understand a speaker of another speech variety, understanding is more likely
than if this were not the case. In addition, chains of speech varieties exist in
which adjacent speech varieties are mutually intelligible, but speech varieties
farther apart in the chain are not. Furthermore, sociopolitical factors almost
inevitably intervene in the process of distinguishing between dialects and
languages. Such factors, for example, led to the traditional characterization of
Chinese as a single language with a number of mutually unintelligible dialects.
Dialects develop primarily as a result of limited communication between
different parts of a community that share one language. Under such
circumstances, changes that take place in the language of one part of the
community do not spread elsewhere. As a result, the speech varieties become
more distinct from one another. If contact continues to be limited for a long
enough period, sufficient changes will accumulate to make the speech varieties
mutually unintelligible. When this occurs, and especially if it is accompanied by
the sociopolitical separation of a group of speakers from the larger community,
it usually leads to the recognition of separate languages. The different changes
that took place in spoken Latin in different parts of the Roman Empire, for
example, eventually gave rise to the distinct modern Romance languages,
including French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and Romanian.
In ordinary usage, the term dialect can also signify a variety of a language that
is distinct from what is considered the standard form of that language.
Linguists, however, consider the standard language to be simply one dialect of
a language. For example, the dialect of French spoken in Paris became the
standard language of France not because of any linguistic features of this
dialect but because Paris was the political and cultural center of the country.

SINGING
I INTRODUCTION
Singing, the use of the human voice to produce music. In singing, the lungs act
as an air reservoir and bellows, forcing air between the vocal cords (see
Larynx) and causing them to vibrate, much like the double reed of an oboe.
The resulting sound is amplified as it resonates in the cavities of the chest,
neck, and head, and it is articulated (given vowels and consonants) by the
singer's lips, teeth, tongue, and palate (see Speech and Speech Disorders).
Vocal training allows a singer to develop breath control, to regulate the degree
of relaxation or tension in the body, and to resonate and articulate sound.
Whether trained or not, singers in every culture exercise choice in their use of
the voice. American, Swiss, and African Pygmy yodelers intuitively alternate
rapidly between high and low registers, for example, and most men can
produce falsetto tones without knowing that these tones depend on only partial
vibration of the vocal cords.
II STYLISTIC VARIATION
Among the world's many singing styles, cultural choices are observable in the
variations in tone, color, physical tension, and acoustical intensity. Cultural
differences also exist in preferences for high- or low-pitched ranges, solo or
choral singing, extensive or sparse melodic ornamentation, and the use or
avoidance of rasps, yelps, growls, and other colorful voice modifications.
The rich variety of vocal styles found in the U.S. includes the trained, resonant,
well-projected tone of operatic singers; the relaxed, intimate sound of popular
crooners; the tensely sung, high, ornamented melodic style of Appalachian folk
singers; the relaxed, subtly ornamented, rubato singing of black folk musicians,
sometimes augmented with rough, guttural effects; and the tense,
electronically distorted sound of much rock singing. Where ancient
Mediterranean and Asian civilizations once flourished, singing tends to be highpitched, tense, and ornamented, and solo singing predominates; within this
broad geographical area, however, sounds vary from the moderate-range,
highly ornamented style of Indian classical singing to the thin, extremely high,
well-projected tone found in Chinese opera. In sub-Saharan Africa, where an
abundance of choral music is found, low voices for women and high,
penetrating voices for men are favored. Many agricultural regions in central
Europe also have strong choral traditions, characterized by a straightforward,
open vocal tone.

III WESTERN CLASSICAL SINGING

In medieval European church music, high, clear-toned male voices were
apparently favored, resulting in a vocal quality that could help the listener
hear the interwoven melodies of vocal polyphony (multipart music). The
highest parts were sung by boy sopranos and adult male falsettos, although by
the 15th century composers had begun to explore the bass range. The bel canto
(Italian, beautiful song) style that dominated Western singing from about
1650 to 1850 is thought to have developed in the mid-16th century as a result
of new musical styles. The madrigals and other secular vocal genres that
flowered in Italy, for example, required adult female voices to perform
expressive, ornamented, often virtuosic melodic lines. Inseparable from opera
(developed about 1600), the emerging style was also used in church music.
Forbidden, however, to use female singers, the church began to employ
eunuchs, or castrati (sing., castrato)men who could produce full-voiced adult
sounds in the soprano and alto ranges. The castrato voice soon entered opera,
dominating that form in the 18th century and falling out of use in the 19th.
Singing technique in the bel canto era was grounded in using the breath to
regulate intensity of sound and in thorough knowledge of the different registers
of the voice. In the 19th century larger concert halls and, eventually, new
aesthetic goals, led to modifications in bel canto technique. Seeking to
produce sounds that would fill large halls and balance the volume of expanded
orchestras, teachers such as the Polish tenor Jean de Reszke and the Spaniard
Manuel Garca (1805-1906) developed new techniques to increase vocal
resonance. In the late 19th century composers such as the German Richard
Wagner demanded heavier vocal colors: New vocal categories such as
dramatic soprano and Heldentenor (German, heroic tenor) emerged.
IV 20TH CENTURY
Singers in early 20th-century music-hall revues and operettas drew on operatic
singing techniques. The invention of the microphone enabled a soft, intimate
vocal tone to be amplified and projected into a large hall, thus making possible
the art of crooners such as the American Bing Crosby and torch singers such as
Morgana King. By the 1920s and '30s African American vocal colors had become
prominent through blues and jazz singing, but as late as the 1940s and '50s
white popular singers continued to reflect European classical roots. By the
1960s, however, American and British popular singing styles were permeated
with African American and Appalachian traits. In concert music, composers
experimented with styles such as Sprechstimme (intoned speech with melodic
contours), as well as with whispers, shouts, rough sounds, and other vocal
colors formerly excluded from Western art singing.
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THE VOCAL MECHANISM

MOUTH
Mouth, opening in an animal's body used for taking in food. Mouths are also
typically used for making sounds, such as barks, chirps, howls, and in humans,
speech. In most animals, the mouth is found on the face, near the eyes and
nose.
Lips, which form the mouth's muscular opening, are an especially familiar part
of the body for humans. Lips help hold food in the mouth and are used to form
words during speech. They also help form facial expressions, such as smiling
and frowning. Lips open wide during a yawn and squeeze together during a
whistle. Lips are darker than the surrounding skin because of the many
extremely small blood vessels, called capillaries, that show through the skin.
The cheeks form the sides of the mouth. They are composed of muscle tissue
that is covered on the outside by skin. Like the lips, the cheeks help hold food
and they also play a role in speech.
Inside the mouth is the large, muscular tongue. This extremely flexible muscle
is used for eating and swallowing and also for talking. It is attached to the
floor, or bottom, of the mouth. Its upper surface is covered with tiny
projections, called papillae, that give the tongue a somewhat rough texture.
The papillae contain tiny pores that are the site of taste buds, the receptor
cells responsible for our sense of taste. There are four kinds of taste buds that
are grouped together on certain areas of the tongues surfacethose that are
sensitive to sweet, salty, sour, and bitter flavors.
The roof, or top, of the mouth is called the palate. It separates the mouth from
the nasal passages above it. The front part of the palatethe part closer to the
lipsis made of bone covered with moist tissue, called mucous membrane. This
part of the mouth is known as the hard palate. Behind the hard palate is the
soft palate, a small area composed mainly of muscle tissue. During swallowing,
the soft palate presses against the back of the throat, preventing food or liquid
from moving upward into the nasal passages.

Teeth are used for biting into and chewing food. Their interaction with the lips
and tongue helps a person speak clearly. Children have 20 primary teeth, which
begin to erupt, or break through the gums, at about six months of age. At six
years of age, the primary teeth start to fall out, as permanent teeth replace
them. The number of permanent teeth is 32. The crown, or top, of each tooth
is covered with enamel, the hardest substance in the human body.
The mouth also contains three pairs of salivary glands. These glands secrete a
watery fluid called saliva, which moistens food and the tissues of the mouth.
Saliva contains amylase, a digestive enzyme that starts to break down
carbohydrates in food even before it is swallowed. Saliva also contains a
specialized protein, or enzyme, called lysozyme, which fights bacteria.
Despite the presence of saliva, many kinds of bacteria live in the warm, moist
environment of the mouth. Caring for the mouth, called oral hygiene, helps
keep these bacteria from multiplying and causing illness. Daily brushing of the
teeth and tongue, flossing between the teeth, and regular checkups with a
dentist help keep the mouth clean and the teeth and gums healthy (see
Dentistry).
The most common ailment of the mouth is tooth decay. Other disorders
affecting the mouth include gingivitis, a condition marked by inflamed,
infected gums; trench mouth, a severe form of gingivitis that causes bleeding
ulcers in the mouth; and thrush, a fungal infection characterized by white sores
in the mouth. Oral cancer is a risk for individuals who smoke or chew tobacco
or who drink alcohol excessively. A small lump or thickened tissue in the mouth
may indicate cancer. It should be checked by a doctor or dentist without delay,
as many oral cancers can be cured if treated early.
TEETH
Teeth, hard, bony structures in the mouths of humans and animals used
primarily to chew food, but also for gnawing, digging, fighting, and catching
and killing prey. Teeth are the bodys hardest, most durable organlong after
bones and flesh have dissolved, archaeologists find well-preserved teeth from
humans and other animals that lived thousands of years ago.
Humans use teeth to tear, grind, and chew food in the first step of digestion,
enabling enzymes and lubricants released in the mouth to further break down
food. Teeth also play a role in human speechthe teeth, lips, and tongue are
used to form words by controlling airflow through the mouth. Additionally,
teeth provide structural support to muscles in the face and form the human
smile.

TONGUE
Tongue, muscular organ in the mouth, the primary organ of taste and important
in the formation of speech and in the chewing and swallowing of food. The
tongue, which is covered by a mucous membrane, extends from the hyoid bone
at the back of the mouth upward and forward to the lips. Its upper surface,
borders, and the forward part of the lower surface are free; elsewhere it is
attached to adjacent parts of the mouth. The extrinsic muscles attach the
tongue to external points, and the intrinsic muscle fibers, which run vertically,
transversely, and longitudinally, allow it great range of movement. The upper
surface is covered with small projections called papillae, which give it a rough
texture. The color of the tongue, usually pinkish-red but discolored by various
diseases, is an indication of health.
The tongue serves as an organ of taste, with taste buds scattered over its
surface and concentrated toward the back of the tongue. In chewing, the
tongue holds the food against the teeth; in swallowing, it moves the food back
into the pharynx, and then into the esophagus when the pressure of the tongue
closes the opening of the trachea, or windpipe. It also acts, together with the
lips, teeth, and hard palate, to form word sounds.
Observations of cow tongues have recently revealed the presence of natural
antibiotics on the tongue. The antibiotics are peptides that can prevent
infection of cuts in the mouth by resident bacteria. Similar antibiotics are
presumed to be produced by the human tongue as well.

PALATE
Palate, roof of the mouth, separating the mouth from the nasal cavities. The
palate consists of two portions: the hard palate in front and the soft palate
behind. The hard palate is formed of periosteum, a bony plate covered by
mucous membrane, and arches over to meet the gums in front and on either
side. The soft palate is a movable fold of mucous membrane enclosing muscular
fibers. Its sides blend with the pharynx (throat), but its lower border is free. It
is suspended from the rear of the hard palate so as to form a wall or division
between the mouth and the pharynx. During swallowing, this wall is raised to
close the entrance to the nasal passages. A small cone-shaped structure, the
uvula, hangs from the lower border of the soft palate.
The condition called cleft palate is a birth defect that results from incomplete
development of the palate. It is characterized by a hole or gap in the palate
that may extend from behind the teeth to the nasal cavity.
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PHARYNX
Pharynx, muscular tube located in the neck, lined with mucous membrane, that
connects the nose and mouth with the trachea (windpipe) and esophagus and
serves as a passageway for both air and food. About 13 cm (5 in) long in
humans, it lies in the front of the spinal column. The pharynx contains the
tonsils and, in children, the adenoids. Because it begins in the back of the
nasal cavity, the upper part of the pharynx is called the nasopharynx. The
lower part, or oropharynx, refers to the area in the back of the mouth. The
pharynx ends at the epiglottis, a flap of cartilage that prevents food from
entering the trachea but allows it to enter the esophagus. Two eustachian
tubes connect the pharynx to the middle ear and help equalize air pressure
that builds up on the eardrums.
The pharynx is subject to infections that enter through both the mouth and the
nose. The symptoms of a sore throat generally involve inflammation or
infection of the pharynx called pharyngitis. Causes of pharyngitis include viral
infections such as the common cold, influenza, German measles (rubella),
herpes, and infectious mononucleosis. In addition, diphtherial, chlamydial,
streptococcal, and staphylococcal bacteria may rapidly multiply in the pharynx
and cause soreness in the throat.

EPIGLOTTIS
Epiglottis, thin, lid like flap of cartilage attached to the base of the tongue of
terrestrial vertebrates. The epiglottis is normally pointed upward, but during
the passage of solids and liquids from the mouth into the esophagus, the
epiglottis is folded down over the glottis, the opening between the vocal cords,
to prevent food from passing into the trachea.

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LARYNX
Larynx, hollow chamber in which the voice is produced, at the front or upper
part of the windpipe of mammals, frogs, and toads; it is also called the voice
box. In mammals it leads from the lower portion of the pharynx to the trachea
and is situated in front of or ventral to the esophagus, behind the skin and
connective tissue of the throat. The larynx is supported by ligaments from the
hyoid bone, situated at the base of the tongue.
The skeletal structure of the larynx is made up of three large cartilaginous
structures, the epiglottis, thyroid cartilage, and cricoid cartilage, and of
several pairs of small cartilages, the most important of which are known as
arytenoid cartilages. The epiglottis is a broad cartilage attached in front to the
top of the thyroid cartilage. The epiglottis swings over the opening from the
pharynx into the voice box. When an animal swallows, the larynx is raised to
press against the epiglottis and root of the tongue, preventing food from
entering the air passages. Just below the epiglottis is the angular thyroid
cartilage, composed of two vertical plates that join in the front of the neck.
The junction of these plates causes the projection commonly known as the
Adam's apple, so called because of the legend, referred to in Genesis 3:6, of
the apple that lodged in Adam's throat. The rear portions of the thyroid
cartilage grip the circular cricoid cartilage, which keeps the laryngeal
passageway open at all times. On each side of the rear upper border of the
cricoid cartilage is a small, movable arytenoid cartilage.

In frogs and toads the voice box leads directly from the pharynx into the lungs.
Frogs have auxiliary vocal sacs that, when inflated, serve to make the voice
more resonant. Analogues of such resonating chambers are found among
mammals in the hollow hyoid bone of the howling monkey and in the sac
leading from the larynx of a gorilla virtually to its armpit. In birds, the voice is

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produced in an organ known as the syrinx. Lower animals use other methods to
produce sounds (see Grasshopper).
In the human larynx, two pairs of vocal cords/folds are present. They are made
of elastic connective tissue covered by folds of mucous membrane. One pair,
the false vocal cords, extends from the epiglottis to the angle of the thyroid
cartilage; these cords narrow the glottis (the pharyngeal opening of the larynx)
during swallowing. Below the false cords are the true vocal cords, extending
from the arytenoid cartilages to the angle of the thyroid cartilage. Vibration of
this pair of cords by air passing out of the lungs causes the formation of sounds
that are amplified by the resonating nature of the voice box. The pitch of the
sound is voluntarily controlled by muscles that rotate the arytenoid cartilages
toward the center of the body (slackening and lengthening the cords) for low
tones, and toward the sides of the body (shortening the cords and pulling them
taut) for high-pitched tones. The extent of the angle formed by the plates of
the thyroid cartilage determines the depth of the human voice. The angle
decreases in males at puberty, causing decreased tension of the vocal cords and
a consequently deeper voice, and increases in most females at puberty, causing
increased tension of the vocal cords.

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TRACHEA
Trachea, section of the mammalian respiratory tract in the neck, extending
between the larynx and the bronchi and lying in front of the esophagus. The
trachea, commonly called windpipe, is made up of numerous cartilaginous halfrings, the open ends of which are adjacent to the esophagus. These rings,
located one above the other, are connected by muscular and fibrous tissue. The
trachea in humans is about 10 cm (4.5 in) long and 2.5 cm (1 in) in diameter. It
is lined internally with a ciliated mucous membrane. The trachea is highly
susceptible to respiratory infections. A tracheotomy, the surgical opening of the
trachea, may be necessary if the tube is obstructed by a foreign object or
because of a disease.

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LUNG
I INTRODUCTION
Lung, either of a pair of elastic, spongy organs used in breathing and
respiration. Lungs are present in all mammals, birds, and reptiles. Most
amphibians and a few species of fish also have lungs.
In humans the lungs occupy a large portion of the chest cavity from the
collarbone down to the diaphragm, a dome-shaped sheet of muscle that walls
off the chest cavity from the abdominal cavity. At birth the lungs are pink, but
as a person ages, they become gray and mottled from tiny particles breathed in
with the air. Generally, people who live in cities and industrial areas have
darker lungs than those who live in the country.
II STRUCTURE OF THE LUNGS
Air travels to the lungs through a series of air tubes and passages. It enters the
body through the nostrils or the mouth, passing down the throat to the larynx,
or voice box, and then to the trachea, or windpipe. In the chest cavity the
trachea divides into two branches, called the right and left bronchi or bronchial
tubes, that enter the lungs.
III BREATHING
Although the words breathing and respiration are sometimes used
interchangeably, they have distinct meanings. Breathing is the process of
moving oxygen-rich air into and out of the lungs. Respiration refers to all of the
processes involved in getting oxygen to tissues, including breathing, diffusion of
oxygen from the lungs to the blood, transport by the blood, and diffusion from
the blood to tissues. Respiration is essential for aerobic respiration, the process
within cells in which nutrients and oxygen are used to build the energy
molecule adenosine triphosphate (ATP). In aerobic respiration, body cells use
oxygen to metabolize glucose, forming carbon dioxide as a waste product that
is exhaled.
The process of breathing is generally divided into two phases, inspiration and
expiration. In inspiration, air is moved into the lungs. In expiration, air is
forced out of the lungs. The lungs themselves have no muscle tissue. Their
movements are controlled by the rib cage and the diaphragm.
During inspiration the muscles around the rib cage contract, lifting the ribs
upward and outward, and lowering the dome of the diaphragm until it forms a
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nearly flat sheet. As a result of these changes, the chest cavity expands.
Because the lungs are attached to the chest cavity, they also expand. With the
enlargement of the lungs, air pressure inside the lungs falls below the pressure
of the air outside the body, creating a partial vacuum, and air from outside the
body rushes into the lungs.
In expiration the muscles that lift the rib cage and lower the diaphragm relax.
As a result, the rib cage and the diaphragm return to their original positions,
and the lungs contract with them. With each contraction of the lungs the air
inside them is forced out.
A person can alter the rate of breathing and can even stop breathing for a short
time. But it is impossible to voluntarily stop breathing permanently because
breathing, like the heartbeat, is an involuntary activity controlled by nerve
centers in the brain stem, the lower part of the brain. These centers are
connected with the muscles of the rib cage and diaphragm, and they increase
or decrease the rate of breathing according to the needs of the body.

DIAPHRAGM
Diaphragm, wide muscular partition separating the thoracic, or chest cavity,
from the abdominal cavity. It is a characteristic of all mammals and is
rudimentary in some birds. In humans the diaphragm is attached to the lumbar
vertebrae, the lower ribs, and the sternum or breastbone. Three major
openings in the diaphragm allow passage of the esophagus, the aorta, the
veins, the nerves, and the lymphatic and thoracic ducts.
The diaphragm is roughly elliptical in humans. It slants upward, higher in front
than in the rear, and is dome-shaped when relaxed. Contraction and expansion
of the diaphragm are significant in breathing. During inhalation the diaphragm
contracts, becoming flattened and increasing the capacity of the thorax. Air
rushes into the lungs to fill the partial vacuum thus formed. Air is exhaled when
the diaphragm relaxes. When the diaphragm contracts, it exerts pressure on
the abdomen, stimulating the stomach, and thus aiding in the process of
digestion. A hiccup is caused by a spasmodic, involuntary contraction of the
diaphragm.

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RIB
Rib, in anatomy, a long, slender bone attached to the backbone that curves
around the chest cavity, or thorax. The front of each rib ends in a short,
flexible section of cartilage. Ribs occur in pairs and are found in almost all
vertebrates, or animals with backbones.
Humans normally have 12 pairs of ribs, with one pair extending from each of
the thoracic vertebra. The vertebrae are the 33 individual bones that comprise
the backbone, or spinal column. The upper seven pairs of ribs, called true ribs,
are connected to the breastbone by the cartilage at the front of each rib. The
remaining five pairs are called false ribs. The upper three pairs of false ribs are
attached to the backbone, with each rib connected to the cartilage of the rib
above it. The last two pairs of false ribs are called floating ribs because they
are attached only to the backbone, and not to the breastbone or any other rib.
Occasionally an extra pair of very short ribs extends from the lowest vertebra
in the neck.

ARTERY
Artery, one of the tubular vessels that conveys blood from the heart to the
tissues of the body. Two arteries have direct connection with the heart: (1) the
aorta, which, with its branches, conveys oxygenated blood from the left
ventricle to every part of the body; and (2) the pulmonary artery, which
conveys blood from the right ventricle to the lungs, whence it is returned
bearing oxygen to the left side of the heart (see Heart: Structure and
Function). Arteries in their ultimate minute branchings are connected with the
veins by capillaries. They are named usually from the part of the body where
they are found, as the brachial (arm) or the metacarpal (wrist) artery; or from
the organ which they supply, as the hepatic (liver) or the ovarian artery. The
facial artery is the branch of the external carotid artery that passes up over
the lower jaw and supplies the superficial portion of the face; the
hemorrhoidal arteries are three vessels that supply the lower end of the
rectum; the intercostal arteries are the arteries that supply the space between
the ribs; the lingual artery is the branch of the external carotid artery that
supplies the tongue.
The arteries expand and then constrict with each beat of the heart, a rhythmic
movement that may be felt as the pulse.

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DIAPHRAGM AND RESPIRATION

As the diaphragm contracts and moves downward, the pectoralis minor and
intercostal muscles pull the rib cage outward. The chest cavity expands, and
air rushes into the lungs through the trachea to fill the resulting vacuum. When
the diaphragm relaxes to its normal, upwardly curving position, the lungs
contract, and air is forced out.

Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 2002. 1993-2001 Microsoft Corporation.

All rights reserved.

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