Tongue injury
My main character is a girl who had her tongue cut out at a relatively young age (10~12 years old). The world she's in is very closely connected to spirits and gods, and has a fair amount of magic, so I'm not worried about the healing process as much as I am how it affects her down the road.
What I can't find is this: How would having only 1/3 to 1/2 of one's tongue affect eating, swallowing, and things related to that? Obviously, she wouldn't be able to speak very well, if at all, and that's fine. In fact, it's pretty key that she doesn't speak, so that's not the issue. I've tried experimenting with not using my tongue while I eat, but that failed pretty spectacularly. (My tongue kept insisting on moving!) XD
Terms I've already searched: Tongue injury, effect of tongue injury, eating without tongue, tongue injury affects eating, tongue cut out (er...this one got me a lot of things about cow tongues I never wanted to know), and one other I can't remember offhand. I've also run searches on various piercing information sites, to see what can happen when a piercing goes wrong, since I think the overall effect would be relatively similar. What I've found has either been irrelevant (see also: beef tongue) or unhelpful (aftercare information, for example) Other suggestions for searches are welcome, but if you know a site that would have more info, please feel free to link to it.
[edit]Thanks guys! I think I have a good bit of research to dig through now!
What I can't find is this: How would having only 1/3 to 1/2 of one's tongue affect eating, swallowing, and things related to that? Obviously, she wouldn't be able to speak very well, if at all, and that's fine. In fact, it's pretty key that she doesn't speak, so that's not the issue. I've tried experimenting with not using my tongue while I eat, but that failed pretty spectacularly. (My tongue kept insisting on moving!) XD
Terms I've already searched: Tongue injury, effect of tongue injury, eating without tongue, tongue injury affects eating, tongue cut out (er...this one got me a lot of things about cow tongues I never wanted to know), and one other I can't remember offhand. I've also run searches on various piercing information sites, to see what can happen when a piercing goes wrong, since I think the overall effect would be relatively similar. What I've found has either been irrelevant (see also: beef tongue) or unhelpful (aftercare information, for example) Other suggestions for searches are welcome, but if you know a site that would have more info, please feel free to link to it.
[edit]Thanks guys! I think I have a good bit of research to dig through now!