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Tongue

Anatomy
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

The muscular organ used for tasting and speaking, often symbolizing language, desire, truth, or betrayal.

Detailed Definition
In poetry, the tongue joins physical sensation to the making of words. It tastes sweetness and bitterness, shapes sounds, kisses, lies, prays, and names, so it can represent both intimacy and power. A poet may describe a tied tongue to show silence or constraint, or a sharp tongue to suggest cruelty and wit. References to mother tongue can also explore linguistic inheritance, migration, and identity. Its flexibility makes it an especially vivid emblem of language embodied in flesh.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Emily Dickinson’s “Taste a liquor never brewed,” the tongue helps make imagined pleasure feel physical; A poet might write “the lemon woke my tongue” to convey sharp flavor and sudden alertness; “He bit his tongue before answering” uses a common bodily action to show restraint; “Her mother tongue returned in the lullaby” uses tongue metaphorically to connect language, family, and memory
Additional Notes
The tongue connects taste to speech, allowing poets to link appetite with language. It can represent truth, lies, accent, prayer, seduction, cultural identity, or words that wound and betray.
Also Known As
Lingua
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