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Webster 1913 Edition


Cacuminal

Ca-cu′mi-nal

,
Adj.
[L.
cacumen
,
cacuminis
, the top, point.]
(Philol.)
Pertaining to the top of the palate; cerebral; – applied to certain consonants;
as,
cacuminal
(or cerebral) letters
.

Definition 2024


cacuminal

cacuminal

English

Adjective

cacuminal (comparative more cacuminal, superlative most cacuminal)

  1. Pertaining to a point, top, or crown.
  2. (linguistics, phonology) Pronounced using a retroflexed tongue.
    • 1942, George Leonard Trager, Studies in Linguistics, Volumes 1-7, page 52,
      /L/ and /n/, slightly more cacuminal than the alveolar series, are very rare, and occur only in word-final position.
    • 1951, William James Entwistle, The Spanish Language: Together with Portuguese, Catalan and Basque, page 218,
      The cacuminal s is produced by raising the tongue-tip to a point behind the alveoli, with a concavity in its upper surface;
    • 1992, Anatoly Liberman, Vowel lengthening before resonant + another consonant and svarabhakti in Germanic, Irmengard Rauch, Gerald F. Carr, Robert L. Kyes (editors), On Germanic Linguistics: Issues and Methods, Trends in Linguistics: Studies and Monographs 68, page 190,
      It is a trill, because the choice can be only between a cacuminal trill or a cacuminal lateral, but cacuminal l already exists in the system [] .

Translations

Noun

cacuminal (plural cacuminals)

  1. (linguistics, phonology) A sound pronounced using a retroflexed tongue.