noun
- Plural of pharyngal; consonant sounds produced in the pharynx (the throat region), used in linguistics and phonetics.
Usage: technical; linguistics
Examples
- Pharyngals are common in Semitic languages such as Arabic and Hebrew.
- The linguist studied how pharyngals are articulated in the back of the throat.
- Some languages use pharyngals to distinguish meaning between otherwise similar words.
- In phonetic transcription, pharyngals are marked with special symbols.
- The production of pharyngals requires precise control of the pharyngeal muscles.