Palatal consonant
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Palatals are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth). Consonants with the tip of the tongue curled back against the palate are called retroflex.
Characteristics
The most common type of palatal consonant is the extremely common
Consonants with other primary articulations may be
In
Distinction from alveolo-palatal, apical palatalized consonants and consonant clusters
Palatal consonants can be distinguished from apical palatalized consonants and consonant clusters of a consonant and the palatal approximant [j]. The common laminal "palatalized" alveolars, which also contrast with palatals, have a unique place of articulation and should be called
- uñón /uȵon/→[uɲ̟on] "large nail"
- unión /unjon/→[unɟʝon] "union"
So is the difference between Russian clusters ня and нъя (the Russian palatal approximant never becomes [ɟʝ]). However, phonetically speaking, the Spanish one is simultaneous alveolo-palatal and dento-alveolar or dento-alveolo-palatal[4] while the Russian soft one is alveolopalatal laminal (except for /rʲ/ which is apical with a secondary articulation). Neither are true palatals like the Irish one.
Sometimes the term palatal is used imprecisely to mean "palatalized". Also, languages that have sequences of consonants and /j/, but no separate palatal or palatalized consonants (e.g. English), will often pronounce the sequence with /j/ as a single palatal or palatalized consonant. This is due to the principle of least effort and is an example of the general phenomenon of coarticulation. (On the other hand, Spanish speakers can be careful to pronounce /nj/ as two separate sounds to avoid possible confusion with /ɲ/.)
Examples
For a table of examples of palatal /ɲ ʎ/ in the Romance languages, see Palatalization (sound change) § Mouillé.
IPA | Description | Example | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Language | Orthography | IPA | Meaning | ||
ɲ̊ | voiceless palatal nasal | Iaai | [ɲ̊øːk] | 'to dedicate' | |
ɲ | voiced palatal nasal | Malay | banyak | [baɲaʔ] | many |
c | voiceless palatal plosive | Hungarian | hattyú | [hɒcːuː] | swan |
ɟ | voiced palatal plosive | Latvian | ģimene | [ɟimene] | family |
c͡ç | voiceless palatal affricate | Skolt Sámi
|
sääˊmǩiõll | [ɕa̟ːmʰc͡çjɘhlː] | 'Skolt Sami' |
ɟ͡ʝ | voiced palatal affricate | Skolt Sámi
|
vuõˊlǧǧem | [vʲuɘlɟ͡ʝːɛm] | 'I leave' |
ç | voiceless palatal fricative | German | nicht | [nɪçt] | not |
ʝ | voiced palatal fricative | Spanish | rayo | [raʝo] | lightning bolt |
j | palatal approximant
|
English | yes | [jɛs] | |
c͡ʎ̥˔ (c͡𝼆) | voiceless palatal lateral affricate | Hadza | tlakate | [c𝼆akate] | 'rhinoceros' |
ɟ͡ʎ̝ | voiced palatal lateral affricate | Sandawe | dlani | [ɟʎ̝àní] | 'arrow' |
ʎ̥˔ (𝼆) | voiceless palatal lateral fricative | Dahalo | [𝼆aːbu] | 'leaf' | |
ʎ̝ | voiced palatal lateral fricative | Jebero[5] | [iˈʎ̝apa] | 'shotgun' | |
ʎ | voiced palatal lateral approximant | Italian | gli | [ʎi] | the (masculine plural) |
ʎ̆ | voiced palatal lateral flap | Ilgar | [miʎ̆arɡu] | Mildyagru | |
cʼ | palatal ejective stop | Haida | [ example needed ]
| ||
c͡ʎ̥˔ʼ (c͡𝼆ʼ) | palatal lateral ejective affricate | Hadza[6] | [mitc͡𝼆ʼa] | 'bone' | |
ʄ̥ (ƈ) | voiceless palatal implosive | Ngiti | kátdyɛ̀kɛ̀ | [káʄ̥ɛ̀kɛ̀] | 'sorghum' |
ʄ | voiced palatal implosive | Swahili | hujambo | [huʄambo] | hello |
k͡ǂ q͡ǂ ɡ͡ǂ ɢ͡ǂ ŋ͡ǂ ɴ͡ǂ |
palatal clicks (many distinct consonants)
|
Nǁng | ǂoo | [k͡ǂoo] | man, male |
See also
- Palatalization (phonetics)
- Palatalization (sound change)
- Place of articulation
- Index of phonetics articles
References
- ^ "PHOIBLE Online -Segments". phoible.org. Retrieved 2018-10-22.
- ISBN 0-521-26536-3
- ^ Although in Old Tibetan the orthography did indicate a distinction between 'gy' and 'g.y' initials, the latter is commonly reconstructed as a cluster.
- S2CID 145463946
- ^ Valenzuela & Gussenhoven (2013), p. 101.
- ^ Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996), p. 209.
- ISBN 0-631-19815-6.