These words all apply to organs or parts of the human body used in the production of voice, which is first produced when air is drawn from the lungs and forced between two bands or ribbons of muscle (vocal cords ), causing their tense edges to vibrate. The vocal cords are located in one part of a cartilaginous box (larynx ), which is in the upper part of the windpipe, or trachea. When seen from without, the larynx ?or more particularly the thyroid cartilage, the part of the larynx to which the vocal cords are attached ?appears as an irregularly shaped prominence in the throat that moves when one swallows or yawns. It is especially noticeable in men, hence its popular name Adam’s apple . In non-technical use the larynx is known simply and accurately as the voice box .

The space between the vocal cords is called the glottis . For ordinary breathing the vocal cords are relaxed and widely separated. For voiced sounds, including all vowels and some consonants, such as the initial sounds of "bin, zip and this," the vocal cords are pressed lightly together, the air forced between them produces vibration and thus voice. In whispering, the main part of the glottis is tightly closed, but two movable cartilage (arytenoids) which form one end of the vocal cords are drawn slightly apart, and the air is forced out between them, thus producing voice of a different sort from that of ordinary speech.

The palate refers to the roof of the mouth, and it is commonly thought of as consisting of two parts, the hard palate in the forward part and the soft palate , or velum , in the rear part. The velum , consisting of muscular tissue, acts as a valve for the production or suppression of nasality; when a nasal sound (such as the initial sound in "mouse") is to be produced, the soft palate moves forwards so that the stream of air, whose exit through the mouth is blocked elsewhere (in the case of "mouse" by closed lips), is forced up and out through the nose. Otherwise the velum is moved back and up to block the nasal exit, and the air is forced out entirely through the mouth. Of course, in reality there are many gradations between nasal and oral sounds, and a certain degree of nasality is present even when one does not intend it.

That part of the alimentary canal behind the mouth and nasal passages and extending down to the oesophagus and trachea (or windpipe) is called the pharynx, after the Greek word for throat. The pharynx is the passageway for both food and air.

The uvula is the soft, fleshy appendage hanging in the back of the mouth, and is part of the soft palate . Its chief function so far as most speakers of English are concerned seems to be to get red and inflamed when one gets a "sore throat," but in other languages and in some dialects of English it is used in the production of speech sounds.