What is a soft floor?

The soft floor, also called a muscular floor or velum, is part of the roof of the mouth behind the hard floor. It differs from the hard floor in that it does not have a basic bone. The soft floor is located in the back of the mouth, near the neck.

Unlike the hard floor, the soft floor can move. It consists of muscles covered with mucous membranes and can close the nasal passages from the mouth by pulling and increasing. This action is used during swallowing and during sneezing to prevent the nasal discharge from entering the mouth.

VELUM Increasing action is also used in speech to create nasal sounds such as English "M" and "N". Some languages, including French, also distinguish between oral vowels, produced by velum and nasal vowels, produced with overcast and velum lifting. The soft floor is also important in speech sounds produced by lifting the body of the tongue to meet the soft floor. These sounds, known asalas, include English "K" and "G".

There are five muscles on the soft floor. Two, Levator Veli Palatini andTensor veli palatini, are mainly responsible for swallowing. The other two, palatoglossus and palatopharyngeus, help mainly in breathing. The fifth soft palate muscle, Musculus uvulae, is responsible for moving UVula.

uvula is a small structure of connective tissue and some muscles descending from the back of the soft palate. It works with a soft floor to close the nasal passage from the oral cavity if necessary. Uvula is also active in creating speech sounds called uvulars that are not present in English, but are very common in other languages, including Hebrew, Arabic and German. Uvula is responsible for snoring and creates a strong reflex of the gag when it touches in many people. It can be used to induct vvynání, for example in case of accidental ingestion of toxins.