That cartilaginous thing behind your tongue is the larynx. Also known as the voice box and the reason we can speak and sing. Somewhere along the evolutionary way, the human larynx descended, and linguists say this was critical to the development of speech and language. Some aquatic mammals and large deer have descended larynges as well.

Say it with me – C-A-R-T-I-L-A-G-I-N-OUS

Let us shrink ourselves in a miniature submarine like Isaac Asimov characters in the Fantastic Voyage and journey inside to the fantastic throat area to see how singers can make such beautiful singing sounds.

This is your captain speaking. Sit back, relax. Your tray tables are tarts, so nibble at will.

As we enter the larynx we see that it protects the trachea, houses vocal cords or folds, and is situated just below where the pharynx splits into the trachea and the esophagus.

Manipulation of the larynx is used to generate a source sound with a particular frequency or pitch. Based on position of the tongue, lips, and mouth, this source sound changes as it travels through the vocal tract. The process of altering a source sound as it passes through the filter of the vocal tract creates the many different vowel and consonant sounds.

The captain has turned on the fasten seatbelt sign, because this throat is about to swallow, and that means turbulence. Just a little bump.

Now the captain has the scientific sign on -

A voice sound is produced when air expelled from the lungs causes the vocal cords to vibrate. This is called phonation. The muscles attached to the arytenoid cartilages control the degree of opening. They allow the vocal cords to be tensed and relaxed. Vocal cord tension is also controlled by rocking the thyroid cartilage forward and backward. This causes the pitch produced during phonation to rise or fall.

Laryngitis is an inflammation of the larynx. It causes hoarse voice or the complete loss of the voice because of irritation to the vocal cords.

And this concludes today’s submersion flight. The captain has turned on the thyroid cartilage rocking sign. You are free to tock that cartilage. Let it out. Set your larynx loose. Wail away.