Editing Vocal cords (section)

==Terminology==
The vocal folds are commonly referred to as ''vocal cords'', and less commonly as ''vocal flaps'' or ''vocal bands''. The term ''vocal cords'' was coined by the French anatomist [[Antoine Ferrein]] in 1741. In his violin analogy of the [[human voice]], he postulated that the moving air acted like a bow on {{lang|fr|cordes vocales}}.<ref>{{cite journal
| last = Ferrein
| first = Antoine
| year = 1741
| title = De la formation de la voix de l'homme
| journal = Mémoires de L' Académie Royale
| pages = 409–432
| location = Paris
| publisher = Bondot
| language = fr
}}</ref> The alternative spelling in English is ''vocal chords'', possibly due to the musical connotations or to confusion with the geometrical definition of the word ''[[chord (geometry)|chord]]''. While both spellings have historical precedents, standard American spelling is ''cords''.<ref>{{cite book |title= The Columbia Guide to Standard American English |last= Wilson |first= Kenneth G. |author-link= Kenneth G. Wilson (author) |year= 1993 |url= http://www.bartleby.com/68/47/1247.html |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080113213928/http://www.bartleby.com/68/47/1247.html |archive-date= 2008-01-13 |access-date= 2008-01-01 }}</ref> According to the [[Oxford English Corpus]], a database of 21st-century texts that contains everything from academic journal articles to unedited writing and blog entries, contemporary writers opt for the nonstandard ''chords'' instead of ''cords'' 49% of the time.<ref name=OUPblog>{{cite web |url=http://blog.oup.com/2007/10/corpus-2/ |title=Are We Giving Free Rei(g)n to New Spellings? |access-date=2008-11-13 |last=Zimmer |first=Ben |author-link=Benjamin Zimmer |date=2007-10-18 |work=OUPblog |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090131114410/http://blog.oup.com/2007/10/corpus-2/ |archive-date=2009-01-31 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=National Dictionary Day |work=[[ABC News (United States)|ABC News]] |date=2007-10-16 |access-date=2008-11-13 |url=https://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=3737179 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081218055135/https://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=3737179 |archive-date=2008-12-18 }}</ref> The ''cords'' spelling is also standard in the United Kingdom and Australia.

In [[phonetics]], ''vocal folds'' is preferred over ''vocal cords'', on the grounds that it is more accurate and illustrative.<ref>{{cite book|last=Catford|first=J. C.|author-link=J. C. Catford|year=1988|title=A Practical Introduction to Phonetics|publisher=Oxford University Press|pages=[https://archive.org/details/practicalintrodu00catf/page/9 9, 22, 37]|isbn=978-0-19-824217-8|url=https://archive.org/details/practicalintrodu00catf/page/9}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Ladefoged|first1=Peter|author1-link=Peter Ladefoged|last2=Disner|first2=Sandra Ferrari|year=2012|title=Vowels and Consonants|edition=3rd|publisher=Wiley-Blackwell|page=20|isbn=978-1-4443-3429-6}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Reetz|first1=Henning|last2=Jongman|first2=Allard|year=2009|title=Phonetics: Transcription, Production, Acoustics, and Perception|publisher=Wiley-Blackwell|page=72|isbn=978-0-631-23225-4}}</ref>