A cine series of tagged magnetic resonance (MR) images of the tongue is used to measure tongue motion and its internal deformation during speech. Tagged images are collected in three slice orientations (sagittal, coronal, and axial) during repetitions of the utterance "disouk" (/disuk/). A new technique called harmonic phase MRI (HARP-MRI) is used to process the tagged MR images to measure the internal deformation of the tongue. The measurements include displacement and velocity of tissue points, principal strains, and strain in the line-of-action of specific muscles. These measurements are not restricted to tag intersections, but can be calculated at every pixel in the image. The different motion measurements complement each other in understanding the tongue kinematics and in hypothesizing the internal muscle activity of the tongue.