laryngeal, a. and n. Anat. and Surg.
(ləˈrɪndʒɪəl)
Also 9 laringeal.
[f. mod.L. larynge-us (f. laryng-, larynx) + -al1.]
A. adj.
1. Of or pertaining to the larynx; e.g. laryngeal muscle, laryngeal nerve. Of a disease: Affecting or seated in the larynx. Of an instrument: Used in treating or examining the larynx.
| 1795 Haighton in Phil. Trans. LXXXV. 198 The eighth pair of nerves communicates energy to the larynx by means of the laryngeal branch. 1854 Bushman in Circ. Sci. (c 1865) I. 282/1 The superior laryngeal nerve. 1861 T. J. Graham Pract. Med. 179 Constituting what..is frequently spoken of as laringeal phthisis. 1871 Darwin Desc. Man II. xviii. 276 The male gorilla..when adult is furnished with a laryngeal sack. 1880 M. Mackenzie Dis. Throat & Nose I. 235 The patient may be directed to practise on himself..with the laryngeal mirror. 1881 Mivart Cat 229 There are no less than eight pairs of laryngeal muscles. 1897 Allbutt's Syst. Med. IV. 791 The chief remedy is the application of astringents to the cords by means of the laryngeal brush. |
2. Of a sound: produced in or modified by the larynx; = laryngal a. Also absol.
| 1921 E. Sapir Lang. 249 Articulations, laryngeal. 1927 R. Bridges in S.P.E. Tract xxvi. 177 The method is that in singing the mouth is fixed in the position that gives the required vowel resonance..and that the laringeal note is as it were forced through it. 1932 W. L. Graff Lang. 28 Laryngeals or glottals, produced by a narrowing or closure of the vocal cords. |
3. Corresponding to sense B. 2 below.
| 1952 Bull. Board Celtic Stud. XIV. 296, I reconstruct in terms of the so-called ‘laryngeal theory’, here, however, without committing myself to the number of laryngeals necessarily to be assumed at a given time. 1958 [see laryngal a.]. 1958 A. S. C. Ross Etym. 7 It is certainly quite impossible for anyone to understand Laryngeal Theory without being thoroughly familiar with junggrammatisch Ablaut. |
B. n.
1. A laryngeal nerve or artery.
| In some Dicts. |
2. Philol. A hypothetical phonetic element with a laryngeal quality supposed to have existed, spec. in Proto-Indo-European, and to have left traces in the vocalic features of extant Indo-European languages.
| 1942 E. H. Sturtevant Indo-Hittite Laryngeals 15 In this book the word laryngeals designates certain consonants of Proto-Indo-Hittite. The name is historically a translation of German Laryngale, which term was borrowed from Semitic grammar by Hermann Möller to designate five phonemes of his Proto-Indo-European-Semitic. 1951 Trans. Philol. Soc. 88 (title) A reconsideration of the Hittite evidence for the existence of ‘Laryngeals’ in Primitive Indo-European. 1963 Language XXXIX. 252 It is intrinsically implausible that a presumably nonsyllabic laryngeal next to a syllabic resonant should vocalize. 1969 Ibid. XLV. 260 Plain stops immediately followed by a laryngeal became aspirated stops in Indo-Iranian. 1971 F. R. Adrados in Archivum Linguisticum II. 95, I refer particularly to those stems in which the presence of laryngeals gives rise to diverging interpretations. |
So laˈryngean a. [see -an] = laryngeal; laˈryngealist, an adherent of a laryngeal theory; also attrib. or as adj.; laˌryngealiˈzation, the action or fact of being laryngealized; laˈryngealized a., of a sound produced in or affected by the larynx.
| 1828 Webster, Laryngean. [Hence in mod. Dicts.] 1943 K. L. Pike Phonetics vii. 127 Laryngealization may conveniently be said to be trillization with superimposed voice. Ibid., In English one often hears laryngealized vowels. 1964 O'Connor & Tooley in D. Abercrombie et al. Daniel Jones 176 Glottal stop and laryngealization before word-initial vowel were accepted. 1964 Language XL. 138 The laryngealist will retort that another..problem..is also solved by applying a laryngeal solution. Ibid. 140 A typical phonemic analysis of the PIE vowels in laryngealist terms. 1968 Ibid. XLIV. 529 Much is made of the fact that only one laryngealized stop (i.e. glottalized or aspirated) occurs per word in Quechua. 1968 Chomsky & Halle Sound Pattern Eng. 315 Several African and Caucasian languages exhibit the so-called laryngealized or ‘creaky’ voice. 1971 Canad. Jrnl. Ling. Fall 70 He rejects phonemic /ə/..thus discomfiting the more elderly laryngealists. |