A standard approach to define k-ary word relations over a finite alphabet A is through k-tape finite state automata that recognize regular languages L over {1, ..., k} x A, where (i,a) is interpreted as reading letter a from tape i. Accordingly, a word w in L denotes the tuple (u_1, ..., u_k) in (A^*)^k in which u_i is the projection of w onto i-labelled letters. While this formalism defines the well-studied class of rational relations, enforcing restrictions on the reading regime from the tapes, which we call synchronization, yields various sub-classes of relations. Such synchronization restrictions are imposed through regular properties on the projection of the language L onto {1, ..., k}. In this way, for each regular language C subseteq {1, ..., k}^*, one obtains a class Rel({C}) of relations. Synchronous, Recognizable, and Length-preserving rational relations are all examples of classes that can be defined in this way. We study basic properties of these classes of relations, in terms of closure under intersection, complement, concatenation, Kleene star and projection. We characterize the classes with each closure property. For the binary case (k=2) this yields effective procedures.

A natural approach to define binary word relations over a finite alphabet A is through two-tape finite state automata that recognize regular languages over {1, 2} x A, where (i,a) is interpreted as reading letter a from tape i. Accordingly, a word w in L denotes the pair (u_1,u_2) in A^* x A^* in which u_i is the projection of w onto i-labelled letters. While this formalism defines the well-studied class of Rational relations (a.k.a. non-deterministic finite state transducers), enforcing restrictions on the reading regime from the tapes, which we call synchronization, yields various sub-classes of relations. Such synchronization restrictions are imposed through regular properties on the projection of the language onto {1,2}. In this way, for each regular language C subseteq {1,2}^*, one obtains a class Rel({C}) of relations. Regular, Recognizable, and length-preserving rational relations are all examples of classes that can be defined in this way. We study the problem of containment for synchronized classes of relations: given C,D subseteq {1,2}^*, is Rel({C}) subseteq Rel({D})? We show a characterization in terms of C and D which gives a decidability procedure to test for class inclusion. This also yields a procedure to re-synchronize languages from {1, 2} x A preserving the denoted relation whenever the inclusion holds.