Palatography is a technique used to identify which parts of the mouth are used when making different sounds. This technique is often used by
linguist
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Lingui ...
s doing field work on little-known
natural languages
In neuropsychology, linguistics, and philosophy of language, a natural language or ordinary language is any language that has evolved naturally in humans through use and repetition without conscious planning or premeditation. Natural languages ...
. A record made through palatography is called a ''
palatogram''.
It involves painting a coloring agent, such as a
dye
A dye is a colored substance that chemically bonds to the substrate to which it is being applied. This distinguishes dyes from pigments which do not chemically bind to the material they color. Dye is generally applied in an aqueous solution and ...
or a mixture of
charcoal and
olive oil
Olive oil is a liquid fat obtained from olives (the fruit of ''Olea europaea''; family Oleaceae), a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin, produced by pressing whole olives and extracting the oil. It is commonly used in cooking: ...
on the
tongue
The tongue is a muscular organ in the mouth of a typical tetrapod. It manipulates food for mastication and swallowing as part of the digestive process, and is the primary organ of taste. The tongue's upper surface (dorsum) is covered by taste bu ...
or the
roof of a person's mouth and having that person pronounce a specific sound. A photograph is then made of the mouth roof and tongue in order to determine how the sound was articulated.
The technique can also be performed electronically (
electropalatography) using a tool called a pseudo-palate, which consists of a
retainer
Retainer may refer to:
* Retainer (orthodontics), devices for teeth
* RFA ''Retainer'' (A329), a ship
* Retainers in early China, a social group in early China
Employment
* Retainer agreement, a contract in which an employer pays in advance for ...
-like plate lined with electrodes that is placed on the roof of the mouth while the speaker pronounces a sound.
See also
*
Articulatory phonetics
The field of articulatory phonetics is a subfield of phonetics that studies articulation and ways that humans produce speech. Articulatory phoneticians explain how humans produce speech sounds via the interaction of different physiological struct ...
References
External links
www.linguistics.ucla.edu Static Palatographywww.linguistics.ucla.edu "Preserving the Sounds of Disappearing Languages"Scholar Space: Static Palatography for Language Fieldwork
Human voice
Phonetics
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