Raising (sound change)

Not to be confused with Relative articulation § Raised and lowered, or Raising (syntax).

In phonology and phonetics, raising is a sound change in which a vowel or consonant becomes higher or raised, meaning that the tongue becomes more elevated or positioned closer to the roof of the mouth than before. ^[1] The opposite effect is known as lowering. Raising or lowering may be triggered by a nearby sound, when it is a form of assimilation, or it may occur on its own.

In i-mutation, a front vowel is raised before /i/ or /j/, which is assimilation.

In the Attic dialect of Ancient Greek and in Koine Greek, close-mid /eːoː/ were raised to /iːuː/. The change occurred in all cases and was not triggered by a nearby front consonant or vowel. Later, Ancient Greek /ɛː/ was raised to become Koine Greek [eː] and then [iː]. For more information, see Ancient Greek phonology § Vowel raising and fronting

In Czech, the alveolar trill /r/ was raised before /i/ to become the raised alveolar trill /r̝/, spelled ⟨ř⟩ as in ⟨ Dvořák ⟩. That is a form of palatalization, and it also occurred in Polish in which it became a simple sibilant fricative /ʐ/ (spelled ⟨rz⟩ or ⟨ż⟩) around the 16th century. The pronunciation [ r̝ ] in Polish is considered to be nonstandard and is used only by some older speakers.

References

1. Ladefoged, Peter (2006). A course in phonetics (5th ed.). [Southbank, Victoria,] Australia ; Boston, MA: Thomson, Wadsworth. ISBN   978-1-4130-0688-9.