cacuminal

From cacūmin- (the stem of the Latin cacūmen (“extremity, point, peak”) + -al

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 […] .

cacuminal (plural cacuminals)

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