Advanced Tongue Root (definition)

Advanced tongue root +[ATR] is a feature used to describe sounds produced with the tongue root pulled forward. These sounds are also said to be tensed because there is a tension in the tongue and lips involved with pulling the tongue root forward. This action creates a larger pharyngeal cavity that often lowers the larynx and results in a breathy quality. Both vowels and consonants can be produced with a +[ATR] feature. In English tense vowels include /i, e, o, u/. In Scottish Gaelic, tenseness is a feature commonly found in sonorants like /L, L'/, /N, N'/, and /R, R'/ where the diacritic indicates slenderization (palatalization).

See Also

• Tense in Phonetics (definition)
• Lax (definition)
• Sonorant (definition)
• Sounds of Scottish Gaelic

External Links

The links below takes you away from the Gaelic Wiki to Wikipedia. Since wikipedia pages can be edited by anyone, they often contain inaccurate information. So be careful!

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_and_retracted_tongue_root
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenseness

References

Ladefoged, Peter (2005) A Course in Phonetics. Thomspson Wadworth Publishers.