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Inphonetics andphonology,relative articulation is description of themanner andplace ofarticulation of a speech sound relative to some reference point. Typically, the comparison is made with a default,unmarked articulation of the samephoneme in a neutral sound environment. For example, the English velar consonant/k/ isfronted before the vowel/iː/ (as inkeep) compared to articulation of/k/ before other vowels (as incool). This fronting is calledpalatalization.

The relative position of a sound may be described asadvanced (fronted),retracted (backed),raised,lowered,centralized, ormid-centralized. The latter two terms are only used withvowels, and are marked in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet withdiacritics over the vowel letter. The others are used with bothconsonants and vowels, and are marked withiconic diacritics under the letter. Another dimension of relative articulation that has IPA diacritics is the degree ofroundedness,more rounded andless rounded.

Anadvanced orfronted sound is one that is pronounced farther to the front of thevocal tract than some reference point. The diacritic for this in the IPA is the subscript plus,U+031F ◌̟COMBINING PLUS SIGN BELOW. Conversely, aretracted orbacked sound is one that is pronounced farther to the back of the vocal tract, and its IPA diacritic is the subscript minusU+0320 ◌̠COMBINING MINUS SIGN BELOW. For letters with descenders, diacritics above or obsoleteU+02D6 ˖MODIFIER LETTER PLUS SIGN andU+02D7 ˗MODIFIER LETTER MINUS SIGN may instead be used after the letter, as in[ɡ˖] and[y˗].

Both vowels and consonants may be fronted or backed. In verbal description, the prefixpre- may be used to indicate fronting, especially in the termsprepalatal andprevelar. Otherwise phrases like "fronted u" may be used. For retraction, either the prefixpost- may be used to indicate retraction, as above, or phrases like "retracted i" may be used.

In most dialects ofEnglish, theback vowel/u/ is farther forward than what is normally indicated by the IPA letter‹u›. This fronting may be shown explicitly, especially within anarrow transcription:[u̟]. Whether this is as far front as thecentral vowel[ʉ], or somewhere between[u] and[ʉ], may need to be clarified verbally, or on avowel diagram.

The difference between a fronted and non-fronted consonant can be heard in the English wordskey[k̟ʰi] andcoo[kʰu], where the/k/ inkey is fronted under the influence of thefront vowel/i/. In English, the plosive in theaffricate/tʃ/, as in the wordchurch, is farther back than an alveolar/t/ due toassimilation with thepostalveolar fricative/ʃ/. In narrow transcription,/tʃ/ may be transcribed[t̠ʃʰ]. In English, the/d/ in the phrase "I need that" is farther front than normal due toassimilation with theinterdental consonant/ð/, and may be transcribed as[aɪ̯ˈniːd̟ðæt].

Languages may have phonemes that are farther back than the nearest IPA symbol. For example,Polishsz is a postalveolar sibilant. While this is often transcribed as[ʃ], it is notdomed (partiallypalatalized) the way a prototypical[ʃ] is. A more precise transcription is therefore[s̠]. Similarly, thevelar consonants inKwakiutl are actuallypostvelar; that is, pronounced farther back than a prototypical velar, between velar[k] anduvular[q], and is thus transcribed[k̠].

Officially, the IPA symbol[a] stands for theopen front unrounded vowel. However, in most languages where it is used,[a] actually stands for thecentral, rather than the front vowel. If precision is desired, this may also be indicated with the minus sign[a̠], although a number of other transcriptions are also possible.^[1]

Araised sound is articulated with the tongue or lip raised higher than some reference point. In the IPA this is indicated with theuptack diacriticU+031D ◌̝COMBINING UP TACK BELOW.

Alowered sound is articulated with the tongue or lip lowered (the mouth more open) than some reference point. In the IPA this is indicated with thedowntack diacriticU+031E ◌̞COMBINING DOWN TACK BELOW. Both consonants and vowels may be marked as raised or lowered.

When a letter has a descender, the tack may be written above it, or using the obsoleteU+02D4 ˔MODIFIER LETTER UP TACK, as in[ɭ˔], orU+02D5 ˕MODIFIER LETTER DOWN TACK, as in[ɣ˕].

In the case of a vowel, raising means that the vowel iscloser, toward the top of the vowel chart. For example,[e̝] represents a vowel somewhere betweencardinal[e] and[i], or may even be[i]. Lowering, on the other hand, means that the vowel ismore open, toward the bottom of the chart. For example,[e̞] represents a vowel somewhere betweencardinal[e] and[ɛ], or may even be[ɛ].

In other non-IPA transcription systems, raised vowels are indicated with the iconic upward-pointing arrowheadU+02F0 ˰MODIFIER LETTER LOW UP ARROWHEAD while lowered vowels have the downward arrowheadU+02EF ˯MODIFIER LETTER LOW DOWN ARROWHEAD. Thus, IPA[e̝] is equivalent to [e˰], IPA[e̞] is equivalent to [e˯].

With consonants, raising and lowering changes themanner of articulation to have more or less stricture. For example, raisedapproximants andtrills arefricatives, whereas loweredfricatives areapproximants. The ambiguous symbols for rear approximant/fricatives may be specified as fricatives with the raising diacritic,[ʁ̝,ʕ̝,ʢ̝], or as approximants with the lowering diacritic,[ʁ̞,ʕ̞,ʢ̞]. InSpanish, thelenitedallophones of the voiced stops are generally transcribed asfricatives even though they areapproximants, 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, thevelar approximant. More precise transcription will use the fricative symbols with the lowering diacritic,[β̞,ð̞,ɣ˕] (the last symbol may be rendered 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,[r̝]. Similarly, thenon-sibilant coronal fricative is written[ɹ̝], and thevoiceless velar lateral fricative as[ʟ̝̊]. (A dedicated letter for this sound, ⟨𝼄⟩, is provided by theextIPA and may be used in IPA transcription.)

From most open (leaststricture) 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; andtrill → trilledfricative 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 benasalized orlateralized as well, and these parameters are independent of stricture.

Examples of stricture series

	Oral	Nasal	Flap	Trill	Lateral
Stop	ɟ	ɲ	d		t͡ɬ
Fricative	ʝ	ʝ̃		r̝	ɬ
Approximant / Vibrant	j	ȷ̃	ɾ	r	l̥
Close vowel	i	ĩ	(N/A)
Near-close vowel	e̝	ẽ̝
Close-mid vowel	e	ẽ
Mid vowel	e̞	ẽ̞
Open-mid vowel	ɛ	ɛ̃
Near-open vowel	æ	æ̃
Open vowel	a	ã

Acentralized vowel is avowel that is morecentral than some point of reference, or that has undergone a shift in this direction. The diacritic for this in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet is the diaeresis,U+0308 ◌̈COMBINING DIAERESIS.

For example, to transcriberounded andunrounded near-close central vowels, the symbols[ɪ̈,ʊ̈] may be used.

In other (non-IPA) transcription systems, ⟨ᵻ,ᵿ⟩ (or ⟨ɪ,ʊ⟩) will be seen instead of[ɪ̈,ʊ̈] (by analogy with[ɨ,ʉ]). Before the letters[ɘ,ɵ,ɜ,ɞ] were added to the IPA in 1993, the symbols[ë,ö,ɛ̈,ɔ̈] were used for these near-schwa values.[ë,ö,ɛ̈,ɔ̈] would now be assumed to represent articulations intermediate between[e,o,ɛ,ɔ] and[ɘ,ɵ,ɜ,ɞ]. Similarly,[ï,ÿ,ü,ɯ̈] would be intermediate between[i,y,u,ɯ] and[ɨ,ʉ].

However, since the IPA does not specify the exact amount of centralization that centralized vowels have, the symbols[ë,ö,ɛ̈,ɔ̈] and[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[a] (which denotes afront vowel), the vowel is actuallycentral and therefore a more narrow transcription of it is[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, theadvanced orretracted diacritics may be used (an equivalent transcription of[ä] is retracted[a̠]), but the concept of centralization is convenient in cases wherefront andback vowels move toward each other, rather than all advancing or retracting in the same direction.

When a transcription system usesboth the centralized and the advanced/retracted diacritics, generally the former indicates a more central vowel, so that e.g.[i̠] indicates an only slightly centralized (retracted) front vowel[i], whereas[ï] indicates a more centralized (retracted) front vowel, or even a fully central vowel[ɨ].^{[citation needed]}

Semivowels can be centralized much like vowels; for instance, the semivowels corresponding to the close central vowels[ɨ,ʉ] can be written as centralized palatal semivowels[j̈,ɥ̈], or centralized velar semivowels[ɰ̈,ẅ]. The transcription[ɥ̈] vs.[ẅ] may also denote a distinction in thetype 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.

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[ə] not just by means of centralization, but also byraising orlowering. The diacritic used to mark this in the International Phonetic Alphabet is the over-cross,U+033D ◌̽COMBINING X ABOVE.To avoid an ascender, or a diacritic above, the mark may be placed below the letter, as in[ɯ͓̃́]

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 whenunstressed. This is a general characteristic ofvowel reduction.

Mid-centralization of vowels can be a speech impediment. An example from Polish iszobaczyłem dziś dwa samochody[zɔ̽bɐˈt͡ʂɘwɛ̽mˈd͡ʑɪʑˈdvɐsɐmɔ̽ˈxɔ̽dɘ] ('I saw two cars today'), instead of the standard[zɔbäˈt͡ʂɘwɛmˈd͡ʑiʑˈdväsämɔˈxɔdɘ]. This can severely affect intelligibility.^[3]

There are also diacritics, respectivelyU+0339 ◌̹COMBINING RIGHT HALF RING BELOW andU+031C ◌̜COMBINING LEFT HALF RING BELOW, to indicate greater or lesser degrees of rounding. For example, the English/ʊ/ often has very little rounding, and may be transcribed[ʊ̜]. InAssamese, on the other hand, theopen back rounded vowel is much more rounded than is typical for a low vowel, and may be transcribed[ɒ̹].

These diacritics are sometimes also used with consonants to indicate degrees oflabialization. For example, in theAthabaskan languageHupa,voiceless velar fricatives distinguish three degrees of labialization, transcribed either[xx̹xʷ] or[xx̜ʷxʷ].^[4]

TheExtensions to the IPA have two additional symbols for degrees of rounding: spread, as in[i͍], and open-rounded ⟨ꟹ⟩ (^œ), as in English[ʃꟹ] and[ʒꟹ].

Manysound changes involve changes in place of articulation:

• raising (phonology)
  • imāla (/a/ raising in Arabic)
  • iotacism (vowel raising and partly fronting in Greek)
• fronting (phonology)
  • i-mutation (vowel fronting or raising, triggered by[i] or[j])

• Phonetics
• Speech disorders

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