In phonetics and phonology, relative articulation is description of the manner and place of articulation of a speech sound relative to some reference point. Typically, the comparison is made with a default, unmarked articulation of the same phoneme in a neutral sound environment. For example, the English velar consonant pronounced as //k// is fronted before the vowel pronounced as //iː// (as in keep) compared to articulation of pronounced as //k// before other vowels (as in cool). This fronting is called palatalization.
The relative position of a sound may be described as advanced (fronted), retracted (backed), raised, lowered, centralized, or mid-centralized. The latter two terms are only used with vowels, and are marked in the International Phonetic Alphabet with diacritics over the vowel letter. The others are used with both consonants and vowels, and are marked with iconic diacritics under the letter. Another dimension of relative articulation that has IPA diacritics is the degree of roundedness, more rounded and less rounded.
| Above: | Advanced, retracted |
| Ipa Symbol: | ◌̟ ◌˖ ◌᫈ |
| Ipa Symbol2: | ◌̠ ◌˗ |
An advanced or fronted sound is one that is pronounced farther to the front of the vocal tract than some reference point. The diacritic for this in the IPA is the subscript plus, . Conversely, a retracted or backed sound is one that is pronounced farther to the back of the vocal tract, and its IPA diacritic is the subscript minus . For letters with descenders, and may instead be used after the letter, as in pronounced as /[ɡ˖]/ and pronounced as /[y˗]/.
Both vowels and consonants may be fronted or backed. In verbal description, the prefix pre- may be used to indicate fronting, especially in the terms prepalatal and prevelar. Otherwise phrases like "fronted u" may be used. For retraction, either the prefix post- may be used to indicate retraction, as above, or phrases like "retracted i" may be used.
In English, the back vowel pronounced as //u// is farther forward than what is normally indicated by the IPA letter pronounced as /‹u›/. This fronting may be shown explicitly, especially within a narrow transcription: pronounced as /[u̟]/. Whether this is as far front as the central vowel pronounced as /[ʉ]/, or somewhere between pronounced as /[u]/ and pronounced as /[ʉ]/, may need to be clarified verbally, or on a vowel diagram.
The difference between a fronted and non-fronted consonant can be heard in the English words key pronounced as /[k̟ʰi]/ and coo pronounced as /[kʰu]/, where the pronounced as //k// in key is fronted under the influence of the front vowel pronounced as //i//. In English, the plosive in the affricate pronounced as //tʃ//, as in the word church, is farther back than an alveolar pronounced as //t// due to assimilation with the postalveolar fricative pronounced as //ʃ//. In narrow transcription, pronounced as //tʃ// may be transcribed pronounced as /[t̠ʃʰ]/. In English, the pronounced as //d// in the phrase "I need that" is farther front than normal due to assimilation with the interdental consonant pronounced as //ð//, and may be transcribed as pronounced as /[aɪ̯ ˈniːd̟ ðæt]/.
Languages may have phonemes that are farther back than the nearest IPA symbol. For example, Polish sz is a postalveolar sibilant. While this is often transcribed as pronounced as /[ʃ]/, it is not domed (partially palatalized) the way a prototypical pronounced as /[ʃ]/ is. A more precise transcription is therefore pronounced as /[s̠]/. Similarly, the velar consonants in Kwakiutl are actually postvelar; that is, pronounced farther back than a prototypical velar, between velar pronounced as /[k]/ and uvular pronounced as /[q]/, and is thus transcribed pronounced as /[k̠]/.
Officially, the IPA symbol pronounced as /[a]/ stands for the open front unrounded vowel. However, in most languages where it is used, pronounced as /[a]/ actually stands for the central, rather than the front vowel. If precision is desired, this may also be indicated with the minus sign pronounced as /[a̠]/, although a number of other transcriptions are also possible.[1]
| Above: | Raised and lowered |
| Ipa Symbol: | ◌̝ ◌˔ ◌᷵ |
| Ipa Symbol2: | ◌̞ ◌˕ ◌ |
A raised sound is articulated with the tongue or lip raised higher than some reference point. In the IPA this is indicated with the uptack diacritic .
A lowered sound is articulated with the tongue or lip lowered (the mouth more open) than some reference point. In the IPA this is indicated with the downtack diacritic . Both consonants and vowels may be marked as raised or lowered.
When a letter has a descender, the tack may be written after it, using: as in pronounced as /[ɭ˔]/, or as in pronounced as /[ɣ˕]/.
In the case of a vowel, raising means that the vowel is closer, toward the top of the vowel chart. For example, pronounced as /[e̝]/ represents a vowel somewhere between cardinal pronounced as /[e]/ and pronounced as /[i]/, or may even be pronounced as /[i]/. Lowering, on the other hand, means that the vowel is more open, toward the bottom of the chart. For example, pronounced as /[e̞]/ represents a vowel somewhere between cardinal pronounced as /[e]/ and pronounced as /[ɛ]/, or may even be pronounced as /[ɛ]/.
In other non-IPA transcription systems, raised vowels are indicated with the iconic upward-pointing arrowhead while lowered vowels have the downward arrowhead . Thus, IPA pronounced as /[e̝]/ is equivalent to [e˰], IPA pronounced as /[e̞]/ is equivalent to [e˯].
With consonants, raising and lowering changes the manner of articulation to have more or less stricture. For example, raised approximants and trills are fricatives, whereas lowered fricatives are approximants. The ambiguous symbols for rear approximant/fricatives may be specified as fricatives with the raising diacritic, pronounced as /[ʁ̝, ʕ̝, ʢ̝]/, or as approximants with the lowering diacritic, pronounced as /[ʁ̞, ʕ̞, ʢ̞]/. In Spanish, the lenited allophones of the voiced stops are generally transcribed as fricatives even though they are approximants, or intermediate between fricative and approximant. This may be partially due to the fact there is only a dedicated IPA symbol for one of them, the velar approximant. More precise transcription will use the fricative symbols with the lowering diacritic, pronounced as /[β̞, ð̞, ɣ˕]/ (the last symbol may be rendered as pronounced as /[ɣ̞]/, but that may not display properly in some browsers). Czech, on the other hand, requires the opposite: Its fricated trill, which is a separate phoneme, may be transcribed as a raised trill, pronounced as /[r̝]/. Similarly, the non-sibilant coronal fricative is written pronounced as /[ɹ̝]/, and the voiceless velar lateral fricative as pronounced as /[ʟ̝̊]/. (A dedicated letter for this sound, (IPA|), is provided by the extIPA and may be used in IPA transcription.)
From most open (least stricture) to most close (most stricture), there are several independent relationships among speech sounds. Open vowel → mid vowel → close vowel → approximant → fricative → plosive is one; flap → stop is another; and trill → trilled fricative yet another. The IPA chart has been organized so that the raising diacritic moves the value of a letter through these series toward the top of the chart, and the lowering diacritic toward the bottom of the chart, but this only works for some of the consonants. While it would be convenient if all consonants could be so ordered, consonants are too diverse for a single dimension to capture their relationships. In addition, many of the points along the series may be nasalized or lateralized as well, and these parameters are independent of stricture.
| Stop | pronounced as /ɟ/ | pronounced as /ɲ/ | pronounced as /d/ | pronounced as /t͡ɬ/ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fricative | pronounced as /ʝ/ | pronounced as /ʝ̃/ | pronounced as /r̝/ | pronounced as /ɬ/ | |
| Approximant / Vibrant | pronounced as /j/ | pronounced as /ȷ̃/ | pronounced as /ɾ/ | pronounced as /r/ | pronounced as /l̥/ |
| Close vowel | pronounced as /i/ | pronounced as /ĩ/ | (N/A) | ||
| Near-close vowel | pronounced as /e̝/ | pronounced as /ẽ̝/ | |||
| Close-mid vowel | pronounced as /e/ | pronounced as /ẽ/ | |||
| Mid vowel | pronounced as /e̞/ | pronounced as /ẽ̞/ | |||
| Open-mid vowel | pronounced as /ɛ/ | pronounced as /ɛ̃/ | |||
| Near-open vowel | pronounced as /æ/ | pronounced as /æ̃/ | |||
| Open vowel | pronounced as /a/ | pronounced as /ã/ | |||
| Above: | Centralized |
| Ipa Symbol: | ◌̈ |
A centralized vowel is a vowel that is more central than some point of reference, or that has undergone a shift in this direction. The diacritic for this in the International Phonetic Alphabet is the diaeresis, .
For example, to transcribe rounded and unrounded near-close central vowels, the symbols pronounced as /[ɪ̈, ʊ̈]/ may be used.
In other (non-IPA) transcription systems, (IPA|ᵻ, ᵿ) (or (IPA|ɪ, ʊ)) will be seen instead of pronounced as /[ɪ̈, ʊ̈]/ (by analogy with pronounced as /[ɨ, ʉ]/). Before the letters pronounced as /[ɘ, ɵ, ɜ, ɞ]/ were added to the IPA in 1993, the symbols pronounced as /[ë, ö, ɛ̈, ɔ̈]/ were used for these near-schwa values. pronounced as /[ë, ö, ɛ̈, ɔ̈]/ would now be assumed to represent articulations intermediate between pronounced as /[e, o, ɛ, ɔ]/ and pronounced as /[ɘ, ɵ, ɜ, ɞ]/. Similarly, pronounced as /[ï, ÿ, ü, ɯ̈]/ would be intermediate between pronounced as /[i, y, u, ɯ]/ and pronounced as /[ɨ, ʉ]/.
However, since the IPA does not specify the exact amount of centralization that centralized vowels have, the symbols pronounced as /[ë, ö, ɛ̈, ɔ̈]/ and pronounced as /[ï, ÿ, ü, ɯ̈]/ can in modern transcriptions[2] be used at times to transcribe fully central vowels, or vowels that have a variable amount of centralization.
In the majority of languages described as having an pronounced as /[a]/ (which denotes a front vowel), the vowel is actually central and therefore a more narrow transcription of it is pronounced as /[ä]/. However, this symbol is not commonly used mainly because of the common practice of avoiding using diacritics wherever possible, and because very few languages contrast front and central open unrounded vowels.
Instead of the diacritic for centralization, the advanced or retracted diacritics may be used (an equivalent transcription of pronounced as /[ä]/ is retracted pronounced as /[a̠]/), but the concept of centralization is convenient in cases where front and back vowels move toward each other, rather than all advancing or retracting in the same direction.
When a transcription system uses both the centralized and the advanced/retracted diacritics, generally the former indicates a more central vowel, so that e.g. pronounced as /[i̠]/ indicates an only slightly centralized (retracted) front vowel pronounced as /link/, whereas pronounced as /[ï]/ indicates a more centralized (retracted) front vowel, or even a fully central vowel pronounced as /link/.
Semivowels can be centralized much like vowels; for instance, the semivowels corresponding to the close central vowels pronounced as /[{{IPAplink|ɨ}}, {{IPAplink|ʉ}}]/ can be written as centralized palatal semivowels pronounced as /[j̈, ɥ̈]/, or centralized velar semivowels pronounced as /[ɰ̈, ẅ]/. The transcription pronounced as /[ɥ̈]/ vs. pronounced as /[ẅ]/ may also denote a distinction in the type of rounding, with the former symbol denoting a semivowel with compressed rounding typical of front vowels, and the latter symbol denoting a semivowel with protruded rounding typical of central and back vowels, though an additional verbal clarification is usual in such cases, as the IPA does not provide any official means to distinguish sounds with compressed and protruded rounding.
| Above: | Mid-centralized |
| Ipa Symbol: | ◌̽ |
Mid-centralized vowels are closer to the midpoint of the vowel space than their referent vowels. That is, they are closer to the mid-central vowel schwa pronounced as /[ə]/ not just by means of centralization, but also by raising or lowering. The diacritic used to mark this in the International Phonetic Alphabet is the over-cross, .
In most languages, vowels become mid-centralized when spoken quickly, and in some languages, such as English and Russian, many vowels are also mid-centralized when unstressed. This is a general characteristic of vowel reduction.
Mid-centralization of vowels can be a speech impediment. An example from Polish is Polish: zobaczyłem dziś dwa samochody pronounced as /[zɔ̽bɐˈt͡ʂɘwɛ̽m ˈd͡ʑɪʑ ˈdvɐ sɐmɔ̽ˈxɔ̽dɘ]/ ('I saw two cars today'), instead of the standard pronounced as /[zɔbäˈt͡ʂɘwɛm ˈd͡ʑiʑ ˈdvä sämɔˈxɔdɘ]/. This can severely affect intelligibility.
| Above: | More or less rounded |
| Ipa Symbol: | ◌̹ ◌˒ ◌͗ |
| Ipa Symbol2: | ◌̜ ◌˓ ◌͑ |
There are also diacritics, respectively and, to indicate greater or lesser degrees of rounding. For example, the English pronounced as /link/ often has very little rounding, and may be transcribed pronounced as /[ʊ̜]/. In Assamese, on the other hand, the open back rounded vowel is much more rounded than is typical for a low vowel, and may be transcribed pronounced as /[ɒ̹]/.
These diacritics are sometimes also used with consonants to indicate degrees of labialization. For example, in the Athabaskan language Hupa, voiceless velar fricatives distinguish three degrees of labialization, transcribed either pronounced as /[x x̹ xʷ]/ or pronounced as /[x x̜ʷ xʷ]/.[3]
The Extensions to the IPA have two additional symbols for degrees of rounding: spread, as in pronounced as /[i͍]/, and open-rounded (IPA|ꟹ) (œ), as in English pronounced as /[ʃ<sup>œ</sup>]/ and pronounced as /[ʒ<sup>œ</sup>]/.
Many sound changes involve changes in place of articulation:
pronounced as /navigation/