One more note: The tongue is divided regionally into the tip (the front part that touches the teeth), the blade (the part that contacts the hard palate), the dorsum (the part that touches the velum), and the root. The tongue root makes up the front wall of the pharynx, (which is why contraction of the root will directly impact the size, and therefore the, resonance of the vocal tract during speech and singing).
The superior longitudinal muscle makes up the upper layer of the tongue. It is a fan-like muscle that runs from the area near the epiglottis all the way to the sides and front tip of the tongue. It elevates, retracts (along with the inferior longitudinal muscle), and deviates (moves from one side to another), the tongue tip.
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| Both superior and inferior longitudinal muscles can be seen here, but they're labeled as longitudinalis superior and inferior. |
The inferior longitundinal muscle is the counter to the superior longitudinal. It originates from the tongue root at the hyoid bone and runs to the tongue tip. Contracting it pulls the tongue tip downward, retracts it (when simultaneously contracted with the superior longitudinal muscle), and deviates the tongue as well.
The transverse muscle runs from the lingual septum to the sides of the tongue. This muscle narrows the tongue.
And finally, the vertical muscles of the tongue come from the base of the tongue and inserts into the membrane covering the tongue. These muscles pull the tongue down into the mouth floor.
Okay, so those are our intrinsic tongue muscles. We have five extrinsic tongue muscles to go through. Remember, these muscles are involved in gross motor movements, so while some of their functions might sound identical to the intrinsic muscles, the actual movement is much larger when the extrinsic muscle is contracted.
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| Extrinsic tongue muscles. Click on it to zoom in and read the labels. |
The first one is the genioglossus muscle. This muscle originates at the inner side of your mandible (jaw bone), and fans inward to insert into the tongue tip and dorsum and the hyoid. It's the big muscle in the front of the above picture. What does it do? Better question to ask is: What doesn't it do? So the front fibers of this muscle retracts the tongue, the back fibers protrude (or stick out) the tongue, and both sets of fibers contracted together end up depressing the tongue. Whew. It does a lot, doesn't it?
The hyoglossus comes from the hyoid bone and connects into the sides of the tongue. Contraction pulls the sides of the tongue down.
The styloglossus comes from the styloid process and inserts into the bottom sides of the tongue. Contraction moves the tongue up and back.
The chondroglossus is one of those funny muscles that is also considered to be a part of another muscle, the hyoglossus up there. The reason it's listed separately sometimes is in its function: It depresses the tongue.
And finally, the palatoglossus makes another appearance here because it does elevate the tongue while it pulls the soft palate down.
Now when it comes to singing technique, we all do some battling with our tongue at some point in our vocal journey. So does knowing these muscles automatically grant you some magical ability to be able to tell your genioglossus to relax when you need it to? NO! Of course not. Knowing the A&P of the musculature is just one part of knowing the A&P of the whole speech (or singing) system. We've got to get to the neural organization that manages the whole system to understand why it's useful to know for teaching and/or singing, so hang in there and let me peel my intended onion for ya.
*Seikel, J. A., King, D. W., & Drumright, D. G. (2010). Anatomy and physiology for speech, language, and hearing. Clifton Park, NY: Delmar.
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