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.

Some linguistic sources distinguish cacuminal, where the tip of the tongue touches the roof of the mouth, from retroflex, where the underside of the tongue touches the roof of the mouth.