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Rhinoglottophilia–an affinity between the feature of nasality and the articulatory involvement of the glottis–is more prevalent than is generally realized. Although it sounds like a disease, or even a perversion, rhinoglottophilia is actually quite a benign and natural condition. It is of interest chiefly because it is not obvious why there should be such an affinity at all.

— James Matisoff Rhinoglottophilia: the mysterious connection between nasality and glottality (1975)

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More quotes by James Matisoff

The long drought in Tibeto-Burman and Sino-Tibetan historical linguistics is over. The field is opening up now as never before.

Benedict's Sino-Tibetan: a rejection of Miller's Conspectus inspection (1975)

There can be no more solemn duty for the comparative linguist than to reconstruct his language family's word for the Supreme Being.

God and the Sino-Tibetan Copula (1985)

The South-East Asian mono-syllable often seems to be bulging at the seams with phonetic material: consonantal, vocalic, and supra-segmental.

The computer will be crucial to handle the etymological information explosion of the future, but machines will never be able to do all the work for us.

On Megalocomparison (1990)

I decided to start with the reproductive system, not only because of its prurient interest but also because it seemed like the point of departure for all things.

Handbook of Proto-Tibeto-Burman (2003)

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