Glotta

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A term that refers to the human tongue, particularly in anatomical contexts
2. denotes a linguistic unit or language in broader discussions on phonetics or semantics
3. can imply a specific mode of speech or expression unique to a culture or group

Etymology: Ancient Greek speakers called the tongue "glōssa," and "glōtta" is a variant of that same noun. Later medical writers kept the older form for their own vocabulary. The root proved remarkably productive in English: the same Greek noun gave us "gloss" and "glossary," because Latin borrowed "glossa" for an obscure word in a text that needed explaining. A reader who met an odd term on the page was, in effect, meeting a difficult tongue. In anatomy, the root appears in "glottis," the opening between the vocal folds, built on the same Greek stem for tongue. The adjective "glottal" describes sounds produced there, such as the catch in the middle of "uh-oh" in many accents. A word for the tongue thus ends up naming both the vocal cords and a family of speech sounds.