Retracted tongue root
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In phonetics, retracted tongue root, abbreviated RTR or –ATR, is either
- the neutral position of the tongue during the pronunciation of a vowel, contrasting with advanced tongue root, or
- the retraction of the base of the tongue in the pharynx during the pronunciation of a vowel. In this case it is in effect partial pharyngealization, although it may contrast with full pharyngealization.
The diacritic for RTR in the International Phonetic Alphabet is the right tack, [ ̙].
RTR vowels are often called "lax", but this is not consistent between languages or even between vowels in the same language.
In languages where they occur, retracted tongue root vowels very often contrast with advanced tongue root vowels in a system of vowel harmony. This is ubiquitous in large parts of West Africa.
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