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Palatalization generally refers to two phenomena: The second may be the result of the first, but they often differ. A vowel may "palatalize" a consonant (sense 1), but the result might not be a palatalized consonant in the phonetic sense (sense 2), or the phonetically palatalized (sense 2) consonant may occur irrespective of front vowels. Conversely, the word palatalization may also be used for the effect a palatal or palatalized consonant exerts on nearby sounds, as in Erzya, where the front vowel æ only occurs as an allophone of a after a palatalized consonant, as seen in the pronunciation of the name of the language itself, . However, while the process may be called palatalization, the resulting vowel æ is not called a palatalized vowel in the phonetic sense. Terminology such as "palatal vowel" is found, however, but this is primary and not secondary articulation.
Phonetic description "Pure" palatalization is denoted by a small superscript in IPA. This is a modification to the articulation of a consonant, where the middle of the tongue is raised, and nothing else. It may produce a laminal articulation of otherwise apical consonants such as /t/ and /s/. It is a phonemic feature in some languages; a common misconception is that it's merely allophonic, like in English. Phonemic palatalization is contrasted with either plain or velarized articulation. In Baltic-Finnic languages, the contrast is with plain consonants, but in Irish, it is with velarized consonants. Phonetically palatalized consonants may vary in their exact realization. Some, but not all languages add offglides or onglides. In Russian, both plain and palatalized consonant phonemes are found in words like пальто , царь and Катя . Typically, the vowel following a palatalized consonant has a palatal offglide. In Hupa, on the other hand, the palatalization is heard as both an onglide and an offglide: . Palatalization can also occur as a suprasegmental feature that affects the pronunciation of an entire syllable. This is the case in Skolt Sami, a language which is unusual in contrasting suprasegmental palatalization with segmental palatalization (i.e., inherently palatalized consonants). Phonological (synchronic) palatalization Palatalization may be a synchronic phonological process, i.e. some phonemes are palatalized in certain contexts, typically before front vowels or especially high front vowels, and remain non-palatalized elsewhere. This is usually phonetic palatalization, as described above, but need not to be. It is usually allophonic and it may go unnoticed by native speakers. As an example, compare the of English key with the of coo, or the of tea with the of took. The first word of each pair is palatalized, but few English speakers would perceive them as distinct. The variation might be seen as allophonic variation as long as the "palatal" sound causing the palatalization is there. However, syncope or elision might delete this sound, and thus only the palatalization remains as a distinct feature. This process is widespread in Baltic-Finnic languages, which have lost their original (Uralic) phonemic palatalization but some have regained it. For a minimal pair, consider Estonian kass from Sometimes palatalization is part of a synchronic grammatical process, such as palatalizing the first consonant of a verb root to signal the past tense. This type of palatalization is phonemic, and is recognized by the speakers as a contrasting feature. However, what may have started off as phonetic palatalization can quickly evolve into something else, so not all of the resulting consonants are necessarily palatalized phonetically. Historical (diachronic) palatalization Palatalization may be a diachronic phonemic split, that is, a historical change by which a phoneme becomes two new phonemes over time through phonetic palatalization. Old historical splits have frequently drifted since the time they occurred, and may be independent of current phonetic palatalization. For example, Votic has undergone such a change historically, in for example keeli → tšeeli "language", but there is currently an additional distinction between palatalized laminal and non-palatalized apical consonants. Palatalization has played a major role in the history of the Uralic, Romance, Slavic, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, and Indic languages, among many others throughout the world. In Japanese, for example, allophonic palatalization affected the alveolar stops and , turning them into alveolo-palatal affricates and before . Japanese has only recently regained phonetic and through borrowed words, and thus this originally allophonic palatalization has become lexical. Such phonemic splits due to historic palatalization are common in many other languages. Some English examples of cognate words distinguished by historical palatalization are church vs. kirk, witch vs. wicca, ditch vs. dike, and shirt vs. skirt, although only in witch/wicca did the change occur in historical times; in the other cases the words come from related dialects, only one of which experienced palatalization. More recently, the original of question and nature have come to be pronounced as in some English dialects, and similarly the original of soldier and procedure have come to be pronounced as . This effect can be also be seen in casual speech in some dialects, where do you want to go? comes out like jew wanna go?, and did you eat yet? as didja eat yet? (or dija eatchet?). Local uses of the word There are various other local or historical uses of the word. In Slavic linguistics, the "palatal" fricatives marked by a hacek are really postalveolar consonants that arose from palatalization historically. There are also phonetically palatalized consonants that contrast with this; thus the distinction is made between "palatal" (postalveolar) and "palatalized". Such "palatalized" consonants are not always phonetically palatalized; e.g. in Russian, when undergoes a so-called "palatalization", a palatalized sibilant offglide is actually added, as in тема . In Uralic linguistics, "palatalization" has the standard phonetic meaning. , , , , , are distinct phonemes, as they are in the Slavic languages, but and are not considered either palatal or palatalized sounds. Also, the Uralic palatalized is a stop with no frication, unlike in Russian. In using the Latin alphabet for Uralic languages, palatalization is typically denoted with an acute accent, as in Võro <ś>; an apostrophe, as in Karelian See also | ||||||||
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