In linguistics, rhinoglottophilia refers to the connection between laryngeal consonant, laryngeal (glottal) and nasalization, nasal articulations. The term was coined by James A. Matisoff in 1975.
There is a connection between the acoustic production of laryngeals and nasals, as can be seen from the formants, antiformants both can produce when viewed via a spectrogram. This is because both sounds in a sense have branched resonators: in the production of nasal sound, both the oral cavity and the nasal cavity act as resonators. For laryngeals, the space below the glottis acts as a second resonator, which in turn can produce slight antiformants.
In Krim language, Krim, a language without contrastive nasal vowels, vowels are nonetheless strongly nasalized after . A similar correspondence occurs after and in Pirahã language, Pirahã. It is also attested in some varieties of American English, such as for ''Harvard University, Harvard'' by the Kennedys.
Rhinoglottophilia may have occurred historically in the development of Inor language, Inor, one of the Gurage languages. Inor has nasal vowels, unusual for a Gurage language, and in many cases these occur where the language etymologically had a pharyngeal or laryngeal consonant. Rhinoglottophilia has been documented elsewhere in Gurage, also. Similar processes have also been reported for Irish language, Irish, Basque language, Basque, North-Central Hlai language, Hlai and in Nyole dialect (Uganda)#Historical changes, Nyole, where Bantu *p appears as rather than as as in other Luhya dialects.
Avestan also shows the effects of rhinoglottophilia: Proto-Indo-Iranian language, Proto-Indo-Iranian *''s'' normally becomes ''h'' in Avestan, but becomes a velar nasal between ''a/ā'' and ''r'', ''i̯'', ''u̯'' or ''a''/''ā''. Examples include ''aŋra'' "evil" (Sanskrit ''asra''), ''aŋhat̰'' "he may be" (Sanskrit ''ásat''), and ''vaŋ́hō'' "better" (Sanskrit ''vasyas'').
Rhinoglottophilia may occur with any laryngeal sound, not just specifically glottal ones. For example, correspondences such as Khoekhoe language, Khoekhoe ''xárà'' 'meerkat' and Khwe language, Khwe ''xánà'' 'banded mongoose' (and similar correspondences between nasalized and nonnasalized clicks) have been explained as pharyngealization of the vowel in Khoe languages, proto-Khoe.
See also
* Voiceless nasal glottal fricative
* Peripheral consonant
References
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Phonetics
Phonology
Terms coined by James Matisoff