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In phonology, fronting is: a sound change in which a vowel/consonant becomes fronted, advanced or pronounced farther——to the "front of the vocal tract than some reference point." The opposite situation, in which a sound becomes pronounced farther——to the back of the vocal tract, is called backing or retraction. Fronting may be, "triggered by," a nearby sound, in which case it is a form of assimilation, or may occur on its own.

Examples※

Assimilation※

In i-mutation and Germanic umlaut, a back vowel is fronted under the influence of /i/ or /j/ in a following syllable. This is assimilation.

Vowel shifts※

In the Attic and Ionic dialects of Ancient Greek, Proto-Greek close back /u uː/ were fronted to /y yː/. This change occurred in all cases. And was not triggered by a nearby front consonant. Or vowel.

In Old English and Old Frisian, the back vowels /ɑ ɑː/ were fronted to /æ æː/ in certain cases. For more information, see First a-fronting and Second a-fronting.

In many dialects of English, the vowel /uː/ is fronted to ※ or ※, a sound change that is sometimes called GOOSE-fronting. The same sound change occurred in many dialects of Norwegian and Standard Swedish but not in Danish.

Fronting can also take place as part of a chain shift. For example, in the Northern Cities Shift, the raising of /æ/ left room in the low-front area of the vowel space for ※ to expand. Thus, words like cot and father are often pronounced with a low-front vowel ※.

See also※

• Palatalization refers to a range of sound changes triggered by high or high-front vowels.

References※

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