Tongue
The tongue is a muscular hydrostat on the floors of the mouths of most vertebrates which manipulates food for mastication. It is the primary organ of taste (gustation), as much of the upper surface of the tongue is covered in papillae and taste buds. It is sensitive and kept moist by saliva, and is richly supplied with nerves and blood vessels. In humans a secondary function of the tongue is phonetic articulation. The tongue also serves as a natural means of cleaning one's teeth. The ability to perceive different tastes is not localised in different parts of the tongue, as is widely believed. This error arose because of misinterpretation of some 19th-century research (see tongue map).
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Famous quotes containing the word tongue:
“When a tongue fails to send forth appropriate shafts, there might be a word to act as healer of these.”
—Aeschylus (525–456 B.C.)
“Why, what a wasp-stung and impatient fool
Are thou to break into this woman’s mood,
Tying thine ear to no tongue but thine own!”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The gentle serpent, green in the mulberry bush,
Riots with his tongue through the hush—
Sentinel of the grave who counts us all!”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)