What is palatalization in phonology?

palatalization, in phonetics, the production of consonants with the blade, or front, of the tongue drawn up farther toward the roof of the mouth (hard palate) than in their normal pronunciation.

Is palatalization a distinctive feature in English?

Phonemic palatalization In some languages, palatalization is a distinctive feature that distinguishes two consonant phonemes. This feature occurs in Russian, Irish, and Scottish Gaelic. Phonemic palatalization may be contrasted with either plain or velarized articulation.

Which consonants can be Palatalized?

In IPA chart, there is a column named “palatal consonants”, including consonants as ɲ, c, ɟ, ç, ʝ, ʎ for example. There is also a ‘palatalization sign’: ʲ, which can be applied to all consonants, used, for example, in Slavic languages.

What is vowel reduction in English?

In phonetics, vowel reduction is any of various changes in the acoustic quality of vowels as a result of changes in stress, sonority, duration, loudness, articulation, or position in the word (e.g. for the Creek language), and which are perceived as “weakening”. It most often makes the vowels shorter as well.

Is lip rounding a distinctive feature in English?

Another feature of English vowels is lip rounding. Traditionally three lip positions are distinguished: spread, neutral and rounded. In English lip rounding is not relevant phonologically (it means that no two words can be distinguished on its basis).

What is Palatalization in Russian?

Palatalization in Russian The word palatalization refers to the act of moving the sound to the palate — the center of the roof of your mouth, directly underneath the nasal cavity. When you do this to a sound, it is called “soft”.

How are consonants Palatalized?

To palatalize any non-soft consonant (soft consonants are already “palatalized”), say the consonant like you’re going to follow it with a /j/ sound, but don’t say it. Ta-da! You’ve palatalized a consonant! This is also called “softening” the consonant.

What is palatalization in English?

Palatalization is a type of consonant-vowel interactions. English, in fact, has at least three kinds of alternations that fall under the general definition of palatalization processes.

How many times has Latin been palatalized?

In the Western Romance languages, Latin [kt] was palatalized once or twice. The first palatalization was unconditioned: the /k/ was vocalized to [i̯t] or spirantized to [çt]. In a second palatalization, the /t/ was affricated to [tʃ] :

What causes palatalization of consonants?

Palatalization of velar consonants commonly causes them to front, and apical and coronal consonants are usually raised. In the process, stop consonants are often spirantised except for palatalized labials. Palatalization, as a sound change, is usually triggered only by mid and close (high) front vowels and the semivowel [j].

What is the difference between a palatalization and a vowel shift?

In some variants of Ojibwe, velars are palatalized before /j/, but apicals are not. In Indo-Aryan languages, dentals and /r/ are palatalized when occurring in clusters before /j/, but velars are not. Palatalization sometimes refers to vowel shifts, the fronting of a back vowel or raising of a front vowel.