White Noise, Red Sun: Body Parts

White Noise, Red Sun

A little chunk of the web dedicated to keeping our friends, family, fans of Mike's noise and anyone else who for whatever reason cares updated on our year abroad in Ichinomiya, Hyogo, Japan.

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Body Parts

Last night I was with the English conversation club, and they were reviewing how to say all the body parts (from last week). Hee hee.
They asked me the name of the little flap that hangs down in the back of your throat. You know, the one that keeps food from going down the wrong tube. I could only remember "pharynx"; how lame! Is there a fun word in English for this??? Do tell!

In Japan, there is a really cute slang term for that important little piece of skin.
You ready? Here it is...

"Nodochinko" noh-doh-cheen-ko

translates to

"Throat penis"
(nodo= throat, chin= penis, ko=small)

Hey, if we don't have something better then pharynx, maybe we can just adopt "throat penis" in the States??? What do ya think?

-C

posted by Shiflet @ 11:12 AM 5 comments  

5 Comments:

At 11:58 PM, joe tunis said...

hey colleen. the piece of skin that hangs down is the uvula. but it doesn't do the routing of food/air down the proper pipes. looks like the pharynx does do the routing. ok, that's all for today's biology lesson ; )

 
At 2:47 PM, Mike and Colleen said...

Thank you! I had tried looking it up on a dictionary website, and the definitions had me confused (>.<) To tell the truth, I could use a daily biology lesson!!

 
At 2:56 PM, Mike and Colleen said...

Why didn't I go to Wikipedia in the first place?! Their "uvula" entry is fascinating! I didn't know it was involved in the clicking noises of some African languages. Or that crazies out there are getting it pierced.
Anyhoo, Thanks Joe!

 
At 2:07 AM, Tricia said...

And here is the food part...
Epiglottis
The epiglottis is the flap of cartilage lying behind the tongue and in front of the entrance to the larynx (voice box). At rest, the epiglottis is upright and allows air to pass through the larynx and into the rest of the respiratory system. During swallowing, it folds back to cover the entrance to the larynx, preventing food and drink from entering the windpipe. The throat contains both an air passage (the wind pipe) and a food passage (the esophagus). If these passages were both open when a person swallowed, air could enter the stomach and food could enter the lungs. Part of the safety hatch that seals off the windpipe is the "epiglottis," a little valvelike cartilage, which works with the larynx to act as a lid every time we swallow. The larynx draws upward and forward to close the windpipe. This keeps solid food and liquid out of the respiratory tract. At the end of each swallow, the epiglottis moves up again, the larynx returns to rest, and the flow of air into the windpipe continues. The uvula (Latin for "little grape") is a fleshy piece of muscle, tissue and mucous membrane that hangs down from the palate. It is the part that moves upward when we say, "Ah!" It flips up and helps close off the nasal passages when we swallow. Contrary to the depictions seen in cartoons, the uvula does not vibrate during singing and shouting and, in fact, has nothing to do with the voice.
courtesy of http://www.innerbody.com/text/dige02.html

 
At 10:58 AM, Mike and Colleen said...

Okay, I think we can now lay this topic to rest.

 

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