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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

cacuminal en · ADJ

Pronunciation

  • /kəˈkjuːmənəl/
  • (US) audio

Etymology

From oblique stem of Latin cacūmen, cacūminis (“extremity, point, peak”) + -al.

Meanings

  1. Pertaining to a point, top, or crown.
  2. (dated) Pronounced using a concave or retroflexed tongue; occasionally palatal sounds more generally.
    • 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 […] .
    • 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.
    • The cacuminal s is produced by raising the tongue-tip to a point behind the alveoli, with a concavity in its upper surface; 1951, William James Entwistle, The Spanish Language: Together with Portuguese, Catalan and Basque, page 218:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
more cacuminal Degree=Cmp lexicographic
most cacuminal Degree=Sup lexicographic

Deriveds

cacuminalization

Translations (3)

ru верхушечный (pertaining to a point, top, or crown) · ru ретрофлексный (phonetics) · ru какуминальный (phonetics)

cacuminal en · NOUN

Pronunciation

  • /kəˈkjuːmənəl/
  • (US) audio

Etymology

From oblique stem of Latin cacūmen, cacūminis (“extremity, point, peak”) + -al.

Meanings

  1. (dated) A sound pronounced using a retroflexed tongue.

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
cacuminals Number=Plur lexicographic