Palate

Not to be confused with palette or pallet.

For the restaurant, see Palate (restaurant).

"Palatal" redirects here. For the phonetics article, see Palatal consonant.

The palate (/ˈpælɪt/) 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 separated. The palate is divided into two parts, the anterior, bony hard palate and the posterior, fleshy soft palate (or velum).^[2][3]

Palate
Head and neck.
Palate exhibiting torus palatinus
Details
Identifiers
Latin	palatum
MeSH	D010159
TA98	A05.1.01.102
TA2	2778
FMA	54549
Anatomical terminology [edit on Wikidata]

Structure

See also: Hard palate and Soft palate

Innervation

The maxillary nerve branch of the trigeminal nerve supplies sensory innervation to the palate.

Development

The hard palate forms before birth.

Variation

See also: Cleft palate

See also: Torus palatinus

If the fusion is incomplete, a cleft palate results.

Function in humans

When functioning in conjunction with other parts of the mouth, the palate produces certain sounds, particularly velar, palatal, palatalized, postalveolar, alveolopalatal, and uvular consonants.^[4]

History

Etymology

The English synonyms palate and palatum, and also the related adjective palatine (as in palatine bone), are all from the Latin palatum via Old French palat, words that like their English derivatives, refer to the "roof" of the mouth.^[5]

The Latin word palatum is of unknown (possibly Etruscan) ultimate origin and served also as a source to the Latin word meaning palace, palatium, from which other senses of palatine and the English word palace derive, and not the other way round.^[6]

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.

See also

This article uses anatomical terminology.

• Language
• Vocal tract
• Pallet, palette and pellet, objects whose names are homophonous with palate for many English-speakers
• Palatability

References

1. Wingerd, Bruce D. (1811). The Human Body Concepts of Anatomy and Physiology. Fort Worth: Saunders College Publishing. p. 166. ISBN 0-03-055507-8.
2. Wingerd, Bruce D. (1994). The Human Body Concepts of Anatomy and Physiology. Fort Worth: Saunders College Publishing. p. 478. ISBN 0-03-055507-8.
3. Goss, Charles Mayo (1966). Gray's Anatomy. Philadelphia: Lea & Febiger. p. 1172.
4. Goss, Charles Mayo (1966). Gray's Anatomy. Philadelphia: Lea & Febiger. p. 1201.
5. Harper, Douglas. "palate (the entry for)". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 10 September 2011. palate – late 14c., 'roof of the mouth,' from O.Fr. palat, from L. palatum 'roof of the mouth,' perhaps of Etruscan origin. Popularly considered the seat of taste, hence transferred meaning 'sense of taste' (1520s).
6. Harper, Douglas. "palatine (the entry for)". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 10 September 2011. palatine (adj.) – mid-15c., from M.Fr. palatin (15c.), from M.L. palatinus 'of the palace' (of the Caesars), from L. palatium (see palace). Used in English to mean 'quasi-royal authority.' Reference to the Rhineland state is from c.1580.

Bibliography

• Saladin, Kenneth (2010). Anatomy and Physiology: The Unity of Form and Function. New York: McGraw Hill. p. 256.
• Thompson, Gale (2005–2006). World of Anatomy and Physiology. Thompson Corporation. pp. Palate (Hard and Soft Palate).