Search Results - Palatalization

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 the Finno-Ugric language 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, [erz?æ]. 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.

"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, Baltic and Slavic languages, the contrast is with plain consonants, but in Irish, it is with velarized consonants.