Palate

Not to be confused with palette or pallet.

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Palate

Head and neck.

Palate exhibiting torus palatinus.
Latin	palatum
Gray's	subject #242 1112
MeSH	Palate
Dorlands/Elsevier	Palate

The palate (pronounced /ˈpælɨt/) is the roof of the mouth in humans and other mammals. It separates the oral cavity from the nasal cavity.^[1] A similar structure is found in crocodilians, but, in most other tetrapods, the oral and nasal cavities are not truly separate. The palate is divided into two parts, the anterior bony hard palate, and the posterior fleshy soft palate or velum. ^[2] ^[3]^[4]The maxillary nerve branch of the trigeminal nerve (V) supplies sensory innervation to the palate.

The hard palate is formed before birth. If the fusion is not complete, it is called a cleft palate. As the roof of the mouth was once considered the seat of the sense of taste, palate can also refer to this sense itself, as in the phrase "a discriminating palate". By further extension, the flavor of a food (particularly beer or wine) may be called its palate, as when a wine is said to have an oaky palate.

1 Etymology
2 Function
3 See also
4 Footnotes
5 References

Etymology

The name is Middle English and is derived from the Latin palatum or the Old French palat

Function

When functioning in conjunction with other parts of the mouth the palate produces certain sounds, particularly velar, palatal, palatalized, postalveolar, alveolo-palatal, and uvular consonants. ^[5]

Footnotes

^ Wingerd, 166
^ Wingerd, 478
^ Clayman, 1995
^ Gray's Anatomy, 1172
^ Gray's Anatomy, 1201

References

Wingerd, Bruce D. (1994). The Human Body Concepts of Anatomy & Physiology. Saunders College Publishing. ISBN 0-03-055507-8.
Wingerd, Bruce (1994). The Human Body Concepts of Anatomy and Physiology. Fort Worth: Saunders College Publishing. pp. 166. ISBN 0-03-055508-8.
Goss, Charles Mayo (1966). Gray's Anatomy. Philadelphia: Lea & Febiger. pp. 1172.

Head and neck anatomy, digestive system: Mouth anatomy (TA A05.1-2, GA 11.1110-2, 1125-1141)

Mouth

Vestibule of mouth

Lip (Upper, Lower, Vermillion border, Frenulum of lower lip) · Philtrum · Buccal fat pad

Oral cavity proper

Palate/ roof of mouth	Hard palate · Soft palate · Palatine raphe · Incisive papilla

Tongue	dorsum (Taste bud, Median sulcus, Terminal sulcus, Foramen cecum, Lingual tonsils) · underside (Frenulum, Fimbriated fold, Sublingual caruncle) · Anterior · Posterior · Glossoepiglottic folds

Other	Teeth · Gingiva (Interdental papilla, Gingival sulcus, Gingival margin) · Oral mucosa