Diacritics, sometimes called “diacritical marks,” are special characters that are added to a symbol to modify it in some way. They can add aspects of articulation, like lip rounding, modify a vowel quality by shifting the symbol forwards or backwards, or add coarticulations to a sound.
When describing a diacritic without a symbol to modify, a dotted or dashed circle is used as a place holder for any symbol, as in ◌̥. Symbols can appear below a glyph, above it, or as a superscript.
Voiceless Diacritic: Under-ring [◌̥]
This can be heard here:
| Symbol |
Name |
Notes |
| [◌̥] |
Under-ring Diacritic |
Generally applied to voiced consonants or vowels. |
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The Sound & the Action: The Under-Ring diacritic [◌̥] represents a voiceless modifier. It can be used phonemically to indicate that a sound that is identified as voiced, in the current context, is voiceless. For example, in a voice –ed ending, at the end of an utterance, the /d/ might devoice to become [t]. This can be expressed as /d̥/. Normally, we expect to see the voiceless diacritic on voiced symbols, such as voiced consonants or vowels. In phonetic use, the under-ring can be used on voiced consonants that become somewhat voiceless, as in quick [kʰw̥ɪk] ,or vowels that devoice, such as in an unstressed syllable after an aspirated voiceless plosive, e.g. potential [pʰə̥ˈtɛnʃɫ̩]. |
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Linguistic Term: Voiceless Diacritic. |
Voiced Diacritic: Small V [◌̬]
| Symbol |
Name |
Notes |
| [◌̬] |
Small V Diacritic |
Generally applied to voiceless consonants or vowels. |
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The Sound & the Action:The Small V diacritic [◌̬] represents a voiced modifier, where the vocal folds vibrate. It can be used phonemically to indicate that a sound that is identified as voiceless, in the current context, is voiced. For example, some phonoloɡists describe the /t/ sound in North American speech as voiced, so a word like water would be /wɑt̬ɚ/, rather than usinɡ the voiced tap/fish-hook symbol [ɾ]. In languages other than English, the voiced diacritic can be used phonetically to indicate partial voicing before a vowel, as in Estonian, where you have [p̬, t̬, t̬ʲ, k̬] in short versions. |
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Linguistic Term: Voiced Diacritic. |
Breathy Voiced Diacritic: Diaerisis (low) [◌̤]
| Symbol |
Name |
Notes |
| [◌̤] |
Diaerisis Diacritic (low) |
Applied to voiced consonants or vowels to indicate breathiness. |
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The Sound & the Action: The Diaerisis (low) diacritic [◌̤] represents a breathy voiced consonant or vowel. It is used to indicate when a voiced consonant or vowel is breathy, where the vocal folds vibrate, but a small gap allows for breath to escape simultaneously. The diaerisis symbol, or two dots, in this case is below the symbol it modifies, as the diaerisis that is above a symbol generally represents a Centralized articulation of a vowel. However, for symbols with a descender, the diaerisis above can be used for the breathy voice, as in [ɡ̈]. |
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Linguistic Term: Breathy Voiced Diacritic. |
Creaky Voice Diacritic: Tilde (low) [◌̰]
| Symbol |
Name |
Notes |
| [◌̰] |
Tilde (low) Diacritic |
Generally applied to voiced consonants or vowels. |
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The Sound & the Action: The Low Tilde diacritic represents creaky voice, sometimes knows as “glottal fry,” which can happen to vowels or voiced consonants. |
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Linguistic Term: Creaky Voice Diacritic. |
Dental Diacritic: Bridge [◌̪]
| Symbol |
Name |
Notes |
| [◌̪] |
Bridge Diacritic |
Frequently applied to apical or laminal symbols. I sometimes call this shape the “staple,” as it reminds me of a staple before it has been put in a stapler. |
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The Sound & the Action: The Bridge diacritic [◌̪] represents a dental articulation, using the “apex” or tip of the tongue on the back of the upper front teeth. Generally, this means the front edge of the tongue, rather than the pointy tip of the tongue. Like other placement diacritics, it tends to be used to modify symbols that are usually associated with other portions of the tongue. For example, one might apply it to the voiceless alveolar fricative [s̪] to indicate that you were articulating this consonant with the edge of the tongue on the back of the upper front teeth, rather than on the alveolar ridge. |
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Linguistic Term: Dental Diacritic. |
Apical Diacritic: Inverted Bridge [◌̺]
| Symbol |
Name |
Notes |
| [◌̺] |
Inverted Bridge Diacritic |
Frequently applied to dental or laminal symbols. I sometimes call this shape the “staple,” as it reminds me of a staple before it has been put in a stapler. |
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The Sound & the Action: The Inverted Bridge diacritic [◌̺] represents an apical articulation, using the “apex” or tip of the tongue. Generally this means the front edge of the tongue, rather than the pointy tip of the tongue. Like other placement diacritics, it tends to be used to modify symbols that are associated with other actions of the tongue. For example, one might apply it to the voiceless dental fricative [θ̺] to indicate that you were articulating this consonant with the edge of the tongue (rather than the blade of the tongue, further back) on the edge of the upper front teeth. |
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Linguistic Term: Apical Diacritic. |
Aspirated Diacritic: Superscript H [◌ʰ]
| Symbol |
Name |
Notes |
| [◌ʰ] |
Superscript H |
Only applied to voiceless plosive consonants. |
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The Sound & the Action: The Superscript H [◌ʰ] is used to denote aspiration on voiceless plosives, such as [pʰ, tʰ, kʰ] in English, but can also be used on non-English voiceless plosives, such as [ʈʰ, cʰ, qʰ]. There are languages that feature aspiration (or breathy voice) after voiced consonants, and can be transcribed, with this symbol, though some phoneticians use the superscript Hooktop H [◌ɦ] to represented this instead. consonants. Some languages, such as Icelandic, have pre-aspiration to denote a period of voiceless before a consonant, as in kappi /ˈkʰaʰpi/ ”hero.” |
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Linguistic Term: Aspirated Diacritic. |
Linguolabial Diacritic: Seagull [◌̼]
| Symbol |
Name |
Notes |
| [◌̼] |
Seagull Diacritic |
Generally applied to voiced alveolar or dental consonants that are articulated with the apex of the tongue on the upper lip. |
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The Sound & the Action: The Seagull diacritic [◌̼] represents an articulation with the tip of the tongue on the upper lip. In English, I’ve seen people use this articulation used in music videos for an over-the-top articulation of a word like “love”. There is a small group of rare languages that use this articulation.
Examples (from Wikipedia)
[n̼] Araki m̈ana [n̼ana] “laugh”
[t̼] Tangoa p̈ep̈e [t̼et̼e] “butterfly”
[d̼] Kajoko dialect of Bijago — [nɔ̀d̼ɔ́ːɡ] “stone”
[θ̼] Big Nambas — [ˈinɛθ̼] “he is asthmatic”
[ð̼] Tangoa v̈atu [ð̼atu] “stone” |
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Linguistic Term: Linguolabial Diacritic. |
Laminal Diacritic: Square [◌̻]
| Symbol |
Name |
Notes |
| [◌̻] |
Square Diacritic |
Is applied to consonants that are articulated with the blade of the tongue (as opposed to apical, the tip/apex, or to apicolaminal, the tip and apex.) |
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The Sound & the Action: The Square diacritic [◌̻] represents an articulation with the blade of the tongue, the area behind the front edge of the tongue. If you were to keep the front edge/tip of the tongue down, behind the lower front teeth, and then articulate an alveolar consonant, such as /t/ with the area just behind the front edge of the tongue, you’d get a laminal articulation, [t̻]. Some phoneticians and speech teachers lump laminal and apico-laminal together as a single articulation, as in many situations, it makes no difference, arguing that it is the backmost portion of the tongue that has the most significant effect. |
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Linguistic Term: Laminal Diacritic. |
More Rounded Diacritic: Right Half-Ring [◌̹]
| Symbol |
Name |
Notes |
| [◌̹] |
Right Half-Ring (or “Small C” Diacritic) |
More rounded is often applied to symbols that are not rounded, or it can be used to indicate greater rounding than is normally used. The “Turned C” shape of this symbol reminds me of lips pointing to the left (which is the front in anatomical drawings), indicating more rounding. |
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The Sound & the Action: The Right Half-Ring diacritic [◌̹], which looks like a tiny turned C, represents an articulation with more lip rounding, usually with lip corner advancement. When used on an unrounded vowel, it makes it more rounded, though perhaps not so rounded as to justify using the rounded vowel symbol. So [i̹] is not quite as rounded as [y]. Can also be used to reinforce the idea of rounding on a symbol that a speaker usually doesn’t use much lip rounding on, such as [o̹ʊ̹]. Can be used with consonants, frequently before a rounded vowel to indicate anticipatory lip rounding, as in [d̹u]. |
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Linguistic Term: More Rounded Diacritic. |
Less Rounded Diacritic: Left Half-Ring [◌̜]
| Symbol |
Name |
Notes |
| [◌̜] |
Left Half-Ring Diacritic |
Less rounded is often applied to symbols that are rounded, or it can indicate no rounding on a symbol, like ʃ, that ɡenerally is rounded. |
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The Sound & the Action: The Left Half-Ring diacritic [◌̹] represents an articulation with less lip rounding, and can even mean no lip rounding. However, lip spreading is a separate diacritic with a double headed arrow. When used on an unrounded vowel, it makes it more rounded, though perhaps not so rounded as to justify using the rounded vowel symbol. So [i̹] is not quite as rounded as [y]. Can also be used to reinforce the idea of rounding on a symbol that a speaker usually doesn’t use much lip rounding on, such as [o̹ʊ̹]. Can be used with consonants, frequently before a rounded vowel to indicate anticipatory lip rounding, as in [d̹u]. |
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Linguistic Term: Less Rounded Diacritic. |
Labialized Diacritic: Superscript W [◌ʷ]
| Symbol |
Name |
Notes |
| [◌ʷ] |
Superscript W |
Generally applied to voiced consonants or vowels. |
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The Sound & the Action: The Superscript W diacritic [◌ʷ] represents a labialized segment. In English, certain consonants are regularly labialized, including [ɹ, ʃ, ʒ, tʃ, dʒ]. Also, when a rounded vowel follows, consonants can also be labialized in anticipation of that roundedness. So this can be written either with the “more rounding” diacritic, e.g. [s̹u] or with the labialized diacritic, [swu]. Some languages contrast nearly all their consonants between labialized and non-labialized forms. Others primarily reserve labialization for velar consonants, such as [kw, ɡw, xw]. |
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Linguistic Term: Labialized Diacritic. |
Palatalized Diacritic: Superscript Yod [◌ʲ]
| Symbol |
Name |
Notes |
| [◌ʲ] |
Superscript Yod |
Generally applied to consonants, with a secondary action of the tongue rising close to the hard palate. |
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The Sound & the Action: The Superscript Yod diacritic represents palatalization of a consonant sound. This frequently occurs in Slavic and Irish/Scottish Gaelic languages. In Irish, palatalized consonants are called “slender”; in Slavic ones, palatalized consonants are called “soft”, and ones that are not palatalized are “hard.” Rather than having separate symbols for the consonants that are soft, in the Cyrillic alphabet there are different symbols for the vowels that follow them. So the Russian word nyet [nʲɛt] “no,” is written < нет > in Cyrillic, where <н> is [n] and <e> is [jɛ]; however, this is really pronounced with palatalization of the /n/ rather than as a separate segment. |
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Linguistic Term: Palatalized Diacritic. |
Velarized Diacritic: Superscript Baby Gamma [◌ɣ]
| Symbol |
Name |
Notes |
| [◌ʲ] |
Superscript Baby Gamma Diacritic |
Generally applied to consonants where the back of the tongue is raised near the velum or soft palate, during their usual articulation. |
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The Sound & the Action: The Superscript Baby Gamma diacritic [◌ɣ] represents a velarized consonant. They can also be represented by overlaying a tilde ~ on top of the symbol. In English, the Dark L is the most common velarized consonant, and it can be written, as we know, as [ɫ] or as [lɣ]. In Irish Gaelic, velarized consonants are known as “broad,” while palatalized ones are “slender.” |
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Linguistic Term: Velarized Diacritic. |
Pharyngealized Diacritic: Superscript Reversed Glottal Stop [◌ʕ]
| Symbol |
Name |
Notes |
| [◌ʕ] |
Superscript Reversed Glottal Stop Diacritic |
Generally applied to consonants or vowels where the pharynx or epiglottis is constricted. |
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The Sound & the Action: The Superscript Reversed Glottal Stop diacritic [◌ʕ] represents a pharyngealization. It can be used on consonants to indicate the constriction of the pharynx and/or epiglottis. It tends to affect the following vowel as much as the consonant. |
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Linguistic Term: Pharyngealized Diacritic. |
Nasalized Diacritic: Superscript Tilde [◌̃]
| Symbol |
Name |
Notes |
| [◌̃] |
Nasalized Diacritic |
Generally applied to voiced consonants or vowels. |
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The Sound & the Action: The superscript diacritic [◌̃] represents a nasalization, where the soft palate is lowered, allowing for the speech sound to travel through the oral and nasal cavity simultaneously. Frequently this occurs in English on vowels preceding a nasal consonant, [m, n, ŋ], e.ɡ. ham [hæ̃m]. In other languages, post-vocalic nasal consonants are pronounced as nasal vowels. French, Portuguese and Hindustani are likely the most well-known languages with this feature; e.g. French: un bon vin blanc [œ̃ bɔ̃ vɛ̃ blɑ̃] “a good white wine” features all 4 French nasalized vowels. |
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Linguistic Term: Nasalized Diacritic. |
Nasal Release Diacritic: Superscript N [◌n]
| Symbol |
Name |
Notes |
| [◌n] |
Superscript N |
Can occur when a stop consonant releases directly into a nasal by the soft palate or velum popping open. |
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The Sound & the Action: The Superscript N is used to denote a stop plosive that releases into a nasal directly. This is an alternate pronunciation of words like gotten or ridden where, rather than either having a schwa between the plosive and the nasal [ɡɒtən, ɹɪdən], or glottal reinforcement of the plosive [ɡɒʔtn̩, ɹɪʔdn̩], the soft palate/velum drops, allowing the voicing to go out the nose, [ɡɒtnn̩, ɹɪdnn̩]. This “pop” feeling that one gets when the soft palate drops I’ve described as being similar to having “Coke go up your nose,” meaning Coca-Cola going from your mouth into your nasal passages (though my students, hilariously, thought I meant snorting cocaine!) As you can see, the diacritic does not replace the nasal, but rather shows the nature of the release of the plosive. It is possible for a nasal release to go into nasals other than [n], such as a bilabial nasal [m] as in open mind [oʊpnm̩ maɪnd]. Note that some phoneticians would use a superscript m in that context, [oʊpmm̩]. |
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Linguistic Term: Nasal Release Diacritic. |
Lateral Release Diacritic: Superscript L [◌l]
| Symbol |
Name |
Notes |
| [◌l] |
Superscript L |
Can occur when a stop plosive releases into a lateral consonant. |
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The Sound & the Action: The Superscript L [◌l] is used for stop plosives that release directly into a lateral consonant. While words such as paddle or battle can be pronounced with a schwa between the plosive and the [ɫ], [ˈpædəɫ, ˈbæɾəɫ]—at least in some accents—they can also have a lateral plosion, where the [t/d] release laterally, rather than down the centre line of the tongue. The tip of the tongue is anchored to the alveolar ridge, and one or both sides of the tongue release to allow the voicing/breath to escape on towards the bicuspids. There is often a brief moment of fricative quality in that release that we might describe with the lateral fricative symbols: [ɬ] for the voiceless one, and [ɮ] for the voiced one. When used in a transcription, the lateral release diacritic precedes a lateral consonant, it does not replace it: [ˈpædlɫ̩, ˈbætlɫ̩]. |
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Linguistic Term: Lateral Release Diacritic. |
No Audible Release Diacritic: Corner [◌̚ ]
| Symbol |
Name |
Notes |
| [◌̚ ] |
Corner Diacritic |
Used with plosive consonants that don’t release. The symbol should be as wide as it is tall. |
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The Sound & the Action: The corner diacritic [◌̚] an articulation where there is no audible release. This is generally done by “holding the breath” on the consonant in question, often with a glottal reinforcement. So, a phrase like That’s it! might be transcribed as [ðæts ˈɪʔt̚]. Another way to do that is to use the corner diacritic on its own—as it’s often hard to tell whether there’s glottal involvement or not—[ðæts ˈɪt̚]. |
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Linguistic Term: No Audible Release Diacritic. |
Advanced Diacritic: Plus [◌̟]
| Symbol |
Name |
Notes |
| [◌̟] |
Plus Diacritic |
Can be used with both vowels and consonants and suggests that the articulation is further forward in the mouth. |
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The Sound & the Action: The plus diacritic [◌̟] represents that the vowel or consonant is advanced, articulated further forward in the mouth. This is particularly useful in annotating articulations that fall between symbols in the vowel space. While it can help to denote sounds that are further forward than the “cardinal” values, for example the advanced /u/ sound in many North American accents [u̟], it can also be used by individuals to indicate that a sound is more advanced than the one in their own particular accent. In consonants, it can also indicate the placement of the consonant that may result from co-articulation, such as an advanced /k/ before a front vowel, for example ki [k̟i]. |
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Linguistic Term: Advanced Diacritic. |
Retracted Diacritic: Minus [◌̠]
| Symbol |
Name |
Notes |
| [◌̠] |
Minus Diacritic |
Can be used with both vowels and consonants and suggests that the articulation is further back in the mouth. |
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The Sound & the Action: The minus diacritic [◌̠] represents that the vowel or consonant is retracted or articulated further back in the mouth. This is particularly useful in annotating articulations that fall between symbols in the vowel space. While it can help to denote sounds that are further back than the “cardinal” values, for example the retracted /ɛ/ sound in some North American accents [ɛ̠], it can also be used by individuals to indicate that a sound is more retracted than the one in their own particular accent. In consonants, it can also indicate a retracted placement of the consonant that may result from co-articulation, such as a retracted /ɡ/ before a back vowel, for example goo [ɡ̠u]. |
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Linguistic Term: Retracted Diacritic. |
Centralized Diacritic: Diaeresis (above) [◌̈]
| Symbol |
Name |
Notes |
| [◌̈] |
Diaeresis (above) Diacritic |
Generally applied to voiced consonants or vowels. |
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The Sound & the Action: The diaeresis [daɪˈɛɹɪsɪs] diacritic [◌̈] represents a centralized sound, one that moves horizontally towards the centre of the mouth. This is can be helpful in annotating articulations that fall between symbols in the vowel space. While it can denote sounds that are further forward or back than their “cardinal” values, for example an advanced /ɑ/ sound heard in some North American accents [ɑ̈], it can also be used by individuals to indicate that a sound is more retracted than the one in their own particular accent. In consonants, it can also indicate a centralized placement of the consonant. It’s been recommended as the appropriate diacritic for identifying the bunched or “molar” /r/ [ɹ̈], heard in many US accents. As the regular [ɹ] represents an alveolar articulation, the diaeresis suggests that it is articulated further back. |
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Linguistic Term: Centralized Diacritic. |
Mid-Centralized Diacritic: Over-Cross [◌̽]
| Symbol |
Name |
Notes |
| [◌̽] |
Over-cross Diacritic |
Generally applied to vowels. |
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The Sound & the Action: The over-cross diacritic [◌̽] represents a mid-centralized articulation, which tends to mean the position of a vowel in the vowel space moves towards schwa in the centre of the mouth. As suggested when we learned the happy vowel [i̽], an easy way to remember the action of this diacritic is to think that “X marks the spot” in the middle of the map where schwa lives. So the modified sound moves towards it. |
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Linguistic Term: Mid-Centralized Diacritic. |
Syllabic Diacritic: Syllabicity Mark [◌̩]
| Symbol |
Name |
Notes |
| [◌̩] |
Syllabicity Mark Diacritic |
Only applied to consonants in syllables that lack a vowel, often at the end of a word. |
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The Sound & the Action: The syllabicity diacritic [◌̩] is a small, vertical stroke underneath a continuant consonant such as [ɫ, n, m] that identifies the consonant as syllabic, that is, it takes the place of the vowel in the syllable. Some phonologies of English represent vowel /r/ with a syllabic /r/, so a word like word would be [wɹ̩d]. Most of the time, the syllabic diacritic is used at the end of a word like action [ˈækʃn̩], where rather than a final syllable with schwa [ˈækʃən], the speaker goes straight to the /n/ which takes the whole time of the vowel and consonant. |
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Linguistic Term: Syllabic Diacritic. |
Non-Syllabic Diacritic: Arch [◌̯]
| Symbol |
Name |
Notes |
| [◌̯] |
Arch Diacritic |
Applied to vowels to indicate that they are not the nucleus of a diphthong. |
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The Sound & the Action: The arch diacritic [◌̯] represents a vowel that is non-syllabic, which means that it is part of a diphthong, either the onglide or offglide, such as in near [nɪɚ̯] or price [pɹaɪ̯s]. Some phoneticians or phonologists use the Short Diacritic [◌̆] for the same purpose. |
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Linguistic Term: Non-Syllabic Diacritic. |
Rhoticity Diacritic: Right Hook [◌˞]
| Symbol |
Name |
Notes |
| [◌˞] |
Right Hook Diacritic |
Applied to vowels to indicate rhoticity. |
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The Sound & the Action: The right hook diacritic [◌˞] modifies a vowel symbol to indicate that it is rhotic. In most descriptions of English, there are only two rhotic vowels, rhotic (Flying!) schwa [ɚ], and rhotic turned epsilong (Flying 3) [ɝ], and the 5 rhotic centring diphthongs for the near, square, cure, north/force, and start lexical sets: [ɪɚ, ɛɚ, ʊɚ, ɔɚ, ɑɚ]. However, some accent coaches, trainers and phoneticians use the rhoticity diacritic on other vowels, often on vowels with no offglide to rhotic/flying schwa, as in [ɑ˞, ɔ˞] for start or north/force. |
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Linguistic Term: Rhoticity Diacritic. |
Velarized or Pharyngealized Diacritic: Tilde [◌̴]
| Symbol |
Name |
Notes |
| [◌̴] |
Tilde |
Applied to consonants to indicate raising of the back of the tongue up towards the velum, or backward towards the pharynx. |
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The Sound & the Action: The tilde diacritic [◌̴] is written over a symbol to indicate velarization or pharyngealization. Primarily this is used on the velarlized voice alveolar lateral approximant [ɫ], the so-called “dark-L”. It can be used with other symbols, such as on the voice alveolar approximant [ɹ̴], to try to represent the so-called “molar-R”, which is a kind of “dark-R,” in a way. (Note that the more commonly accepted way of representing this sound today is with the centring diaerisis diacritic, [ɹ̈].) |
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Linguistic Term: Velarized or Pharyngealized Diacritic. |
Raised Diacritic: Up Tack [◌̝]
| Symbol |
Name |
Notes |
| [◌̝] |
Up Tack Diacritic |
Can be applied to consonants or vowels. The Tack, or “Little T” symbol can be thought of as an arrow, where the cross bar is the end of the arrow, and the other stroke (the part pointing UP in the up tack) is the point of the arrow. |
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The Sound & the Action: The up tack diacritic [◌̝] represents a sound that is raised in the oral cavity, so it is articulated in a more “close” place. With a consonant, it can be used on an approximant to indicate that it is articulated more closely, e.g. an approximant that is becoming fricative and more turbulent, as in [ɹ̝]. With a vowel, the up tack/raised diacritic frequently is used to indicate that an articulation is higher in the mouth than the usual, cardinal expression of that vowel quality, e.g. dress [dɹæ̝s] as is heard in some Canadian accents. |
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Linguistic Term: Raised Diacritic. |
Lowered Diacritic: Down Track [◌̞]
| Symbol |
Name |
Notes |
| [◌̞] |
Down Tack Diacritic |
Can be applied to consonants or vowels. The Tack, or “Little T” symbol can be thought of as an arrow, where the cross bar is the end of the arrow, and the other stroke (the part pointing DOWN in the down tack) is the point of the arrow. |
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The Sound & the Action:The down tack diacritic [◌̞] represents a sound that is lowered in the oral cavity, so it is articulated in a more “open” place. With a consonant, it can be used on an fricative to indicate that it is articulated more openly, e.g. a plosive that is becoming a fricative and less of a stop, as in [t̞] which is heard in some Irish accents (aka “slit /t/“). With a vowel, the down tack/lowered diacritic frequently is used to indicate that an articulation is lower in the mouth than the usual, cardinal expression of that vowel quality, e.g. face [fe̞ɪs]. |
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Linguistic Term: Lowered Diacritic. |
Advanced Tongue Root Diacritic: Left Tack [◌̘]
| Symbol |
Name |
Notes |
| [◌̞] |
Left Tack Diacritic |
Generally applied to consonants. |
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The Sound & the Action: The left tack diacritic [◌̘] points forward in the mouth (remember that in anatomical charts, the front is always on the left). In the past, the horizontal tacks were used in the same way that the Plus and Minus diacritics are used today. However, in recent years, the International Phonetic Association reassigned these tacks to the action of the tongue root; in this case this pushed the root of the tongue forward and is frequently used on voice plosives such as [b d ɡ], which affects the vowel that follows them, making the vowel more advanced. |
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Linguistic Term: Advanced Tongue Root Diacritic. |
Retracted Tongue Root Diacritic: Right Tack [◌̙]
| Symbol |
Name |
Notes |
| [◌̙] |
Right Tack Diacritic |
Generally applied to vowels. |
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The Sound & the Action: The right tack diacritic [◌̙] points backward in the mouth (remember that in anatomical charts, the front is always on the left). In the past, the horizontal tacks were used in the same way that the Plus and Minus diacritics are used today. However, in recent years, the International Phonetic Association reassigned these tacks to the action of the tongue root; in this case this pulled the root of the tongue backward and is to describe vowels in some African languages that contrast between advanced tongue root and retracted. In accents of English, this symbol is rarely used at this point. |
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Linguistic Term: Retracted Tongue Root Diacritic. |
