Hyoid and tongue surface movements in speaking and eating.

The human hyoid moves continuously in feeding, facilitating movements of the tongue surface and the processing and transport of food. The hypothesis that similar hyoid movements support tongue movements in speech was tested in 10 normal young adults of both sexes, who were recorded with lateral-projection videofluorography when feeding on hard and soft foods and when reading the 'Grandfather Passage', which includes the major vowel-consonant combinations in English. Recordings were made with and without tongue-markers.