Raised (phonetics)

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In phonetics, a raised sound is articulated with the tongue or lip raised higher than some reference point. In the International Phonetic Alphabet this is indicated with the uptack diacritic [ ̝].

[edit] Raised vowels

In the case of a vowel, raising means that the vowel is closer. For example, <e̝> represents a vowel somewhere between cardinal [e] and [i], or may even be [i].

[edit] Raised consonants

With consonants, raising changes the manner of articulation to something with more stricture. Raised approximants and trills are fricatives. For example, the ambiguous symbols for rear approximant/fricatives can be specified as fricatives with the raising diacritic, as in [ʁ̝, ʕ̝, ʢ̝]; the Czech fricated trill can be transcribed as [r̝]; the non-sibilant coronal fricative as [ɹ̝]; and the voiceless velar lateral fricative as [ʟ̝̊].

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. Nasals and laterals have their own series. It would be convenient if all consonants could be so ordered in the IPA chart, so that the raising diacritic could be seen moving a symbol toward the top of the chart, as it does for the vowels, but consonants are too diverse for a simple chart to capture all their relationships.