Speech production organs are also sometimes referred to as articulators, i.e. organs used for articulating speech. The most basic organs of speech are the lips and tongue, but there are many other speech organs besides the lips and the tongue. If you place your finger just behind your top teeth, you will feel the bony ridge known as the alveolar ridge. Just behind that is the palate, which is also hard, and if you move your finger even further back along the roof of the mouth, you will feel that the hard section ends and becomes soft tissue known as the velum or soft palate. If you open your mouth wide and look in a mirror you will see the uvula, the little piece of tissue that hangs down at the back of the mouth just above the throat. While you are looking in the mirror, try and locate the bump known as the adam’s apple or voice box, which is situated halfway down the front of your neck. The technical term for this organ is the larynx and it contains the two flaps of muscle known as the vocal cords that project into the airway and can be drawn together or apart like curtains. This opening and closing movement can happen many hundreds of times a second. If you place your fingertips on your larynx and hum, cough or swallow, you will feel the movement of the vocal cords and the larynx itself.