laryngeal

• laryngal

Derived from New Latin laryngeus +‎ -al, from larynx (“larynx”) +‎ -eus (adjectival suffix). By surface analysis, laryng- +‎ -al or -ial.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ləˈɹɪn.d͡ʒi.əl/, /ləˈɹɪn.ʒi.əl/

• Audio (Southern England)

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• (General American) IPA^(key): /ləˈɹɪn.d͡ʒəl/, /ləˈɹɪn.d͡ʒi.əl/, /ˌlɛɹ.ənˈd͡ʒi.əl/, /ˌlæɹ.ənˈd͡ʒi.əl/
• Rhymes: -ɪndʒiəl, -ɪnʒiəl, -ɪndʒəl, -iːəl

laryngeal (not comparable)

1. (anatomy, relational) Of or pertaining to the larynx.
   • 1871, S. G. Cook, “A Case of Hydrophobia”, in William A. Hammond, editor, The Journal of Psychological Medicine: Diseases of the Nervous System, Medical Jurisprudence and Anthropology‎, volume 5, page 83:

     At sight of it there commenced a series of laryngeal spasms, with clutchings at his throat, far more violent than any I had heretofore seen.

2. (phonetics, relational) (of a speech sound) Made by or with constriction of the larynx with only the front part of the vocal cords vibrating, giving a very low frequency and producing what is known as "creaky voice."

laryngeal (plural laryngeals)

1. (anatomy) An anatomical part (such as a nerve or artery) that supplies or is associated with the larynx.
2. (phonetics) A sound uttered by using the larynx.
3. (Indo-European linguistics) In Proto-Indo-European, one of the typically three reconstructed consonants usually marked as ⟨h₁⟩, ⟨h₂⟩ and ⟨h₃⟩.
   • 1940, J. Alexander Kerns, Benjamin Schwartz, “The Laryngeal Hypothesis and Indo-Hittite, Indo-European Vocalism”, in Journal of the American Oriental Society‎, volume 60, number 2, →DOI, page 183:

     The vowel-coloring effects of the IH laryngeals cannot be considered apart from the vowel-reducing effect of the IH stress accent […]

   • 1995, Andrew L. Sihler, New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin‎, New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page viii:

     […] it is not only different from Buck's in the linguistics (laryngeals have seen to that); it is very different in scope and aim.

   • 2006, Donald Ringe, From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic (A Linguistic History of English; 1)‎, Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 15:

     Finally, it should be noted that laryngeals not adjacent to syllabics were apparently deleted by three different rules.

The term laryngeal in Indo-European studies is but an anachronistic misnomer, retained only because it has been established as a standard term for those three phonemes. The exact phonetic value of Proto-Indo-European laryngeals is unknown, but it's generally agreed that not all of them were real laryngeals.

• “laryngeal”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “laryngeal”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.