A cushion device and B+M mode ultrasonography technique were used in 30 healthy volunteers to study tongue movement during swallowing. M-mode images show an amplitude-time diagram, in which the entire tongue movement during swallowing can be easily scrutinized. The different tongue movements during swallowing result in several turning points on the graph of the M-mode sonogram, which divide the oral swallowing phase into five subphases (I, IIa, IIb, IIIa, IIIb). Based on this new classification of swallowing, the tongue movements of the participants were interpreted and classified.