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Palatalization ( ) is a historical-linguistic
sound change that results in a
palatalized articulation of a
consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract, except for the h sound, which is pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Examples are and pronou ...
or, in certain cases, a
front vowel. Palatalization involves change in the
place or
manner of articulation of
consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract, except for the h sound, which is pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Examples are and pronou ...
s, or the
fronting or
raising of
vowel
A vowel is a speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract, forming the nucleus of a syllable. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness a ...
s. In some cases, palatalization involves
assimilation or
lenition.
Types
Palatalization is sometimes an example of
assimilation. In some cases, it is triggered by a palatal or palatalized consonant or front vowel, but in other cases, it is not conditioned in any way.
Consonant
Palatalization changes
place of articulation or
manner of articulation of consonants. It may add palatal secondary articulation or change primary articulation from
velar to palatal or
alveolar, alveolar to
postalveolar.
It may also cause a consonant to change its manner of articulation from stop to
affricate or
fricative
A fricative is a consonant produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate in ...
. The change in the manner of articulation is a form of
lenition. However, the lenition is frequently accompanied by a change in place of articulation.
* > , , , , ,
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 . The sound that results from palatalization may vary from language to language. For example, palatalization of may produce , etc. A change from to may pass through as an intermediate state, but there is no requirement for that to happen.
In the
Nupe language, and are palatalized both before front vowels and , while velars are only palatalized before front vowels. In
Ciluba, palatalizes only a preceding , , or . In some variants of
Ojibwe
The Ojibwe (; Ojibwe writing systems#Ojibwe syllabics, syll.: ᐅᒋᐺ; plural: ''Ojibweg'' ᐅᒋᐺᒃ) are an Anishinaabe people whose homeland (''Ojibwewaki'' ᐅᒋᐺᐘᑭ) covers much of the Great Lakes region and the Great Plains, n ...
, velars are palatalized before , but apicals are not. In
Indo-Aryan languages
The Indo-Aryan languages, or sometimes Indic languages, are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. As of 2024, there are more than 1.5 billion speakers, primarily concentrated east ...
, dentals and are palatalized when occurring in clusters before , but velars are not.
Vowel
''Palatalization'' sometimes refers to
vowel shifts, the
fronting of a
back vowel or
raising of a
front vowel. The shifts are sometimes triggered by a nearby
palatal or palatalized consonant or by a high front vowel. The
Germanic umlaut
The Germanic umlaut (sometimes called i-umlaut or i-mutation) is a type of linguistic umlaut (linguistics), umlaut in which a back vowel changes to the associated front vowel (fronting (phonology), fronting) or a front vowel becomes closer to ...
is a famous example.
A similar change is reconstructed in the history of
Old French
Old French (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th in which Bartsch's law">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ...
in which Bartsch's law turned open vowels into or after a palatalized velar consonant. If it was true for all open vowels in Old French, it would explain the palatalization of velar plosives before .
In Erzya language, Erzya, a Uralic languages, Uralic language, the open vowel is raised to near-open after a palatalized consonant, as in the name of the language, .
In
Russian language, Russian, the back vowels are fronted to central , and the open vowel is raised to near-open , near palatalized consonants. The palatalized consonants also factor in how
unstressed vowels are reduced.
Unconditioned
Palatalization is sometimes unconditioned or spontaneous, not triggered by a palatal or palatalized consonant or front vowel.
In southwestern
Romance, clusters of a voiceless
obstruent with were palatalized once or twice. This first palatalization was unconditioned. It resulted in a cluster with a palatal lateral , a palatal lateral on its own, or a cluster with a palatal approximant . In a second palatalization, the was affricated to or spirantized to .
*
Vulgar Latin "to call" >
Aromanian /kʎimari/,
Aragonese /kʎamar/, Spanish (>), Italian
: >
Istriot , Portuguese
In the
Western Romance languages, Latin was palatalized once or twice. The first palatalization was unconditioned: the was vocalized to or spirantized to . In a second palatalization, the was affricated to :
* Vulgar Latin "night" >
French ,
Portuguese /, eastern
Occitan ,
Catalan (Old Catalan ),
Mozarabic ,
Galician
: > Spanish , western Occitan ,
Romansh
Effects
Allophony and phonemic split
Palatalization may result in a
phonemic split, a
historical change by which a
phoneme becomes two new phonemes over time through palatalization.
Old historical splits have frequently drifted since the time they occurred and may be independent of current phonetic palatalization. The
lenition tendency of palatalized consonants (by
assibilation and deaffrication) is important. According to some analyses, the lenition of the palatalized consonant is still a part of the palatalization process itself.
In
Japanese, allophonic palatalization affected the
dental plosives and , turning them into
alveolo-palatal affricates and before ,
romanized as ⟨ch⟩ and ⟨j⟩ respectively. Japanese has, however, recently regained phonetic and from
loanwords, and the originally-allophonic palatalization has thus become lexical. A similar change has also happened in
Polish and
Belarusian. That would also be true about most dialects of
Brazilian Portuguese
Brazilian Portuguese (; ; also known as pt-BR) is the set of Variety (linguistics), varieties of Portuguese language native to Brazil. It is spoken by almost all of the 203 million inhabitants of Brazil and widely across the Brazilian diaspora ...
but for the strong
phonotactical resistance of its native speakers that turn dental plosives into post-alveolar affricates even in loanwords: McDonald's .
For example,
Votic has undergone such a change historically, ''*keeli'' → 'language', but there is currently an additional distinction between palatalized laminal and non-palatalized apical consonants. An extreme example occurs in
Spanish, whose palatalized (
'soft') has ended up as from a long process where Latin became palatalized to (Late Latin) and then affricated to (Proto-Romance), deaffricated to (Old Spanish), devoiced to (16th century), and finally retracted to a
velar, giving (). (See
History of the Spanish language and
Phonological history of Spanish coronal fricatives
In Spanish dialects and varieties, Spanish dialectology, the realization of Coronal consonant, coronal Fricative, fricatives is one of the most prominent features distinguishing various dialect regions. The main three realizations are the phonem ...
for more information).
Examples
Palatalization has played a major role in the history of English, and of other languages and language groups throughout the world, such as the
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavs, Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic language, Proto- ...
.
English
Anglo-Frisian
In
Anglo-Frisian, the language that gave rise to English and the
Frisian languages
The Frisian languages ( or ) are a closely related group of West Germanic languages, spoken by about 400,000 Frisian people, who live on the southern fringes of the North Sea in the Netherlands and Germany. The Frisian languages are the closes ...
, the velar stops and the
consonant cluster were palatalized in certain cases and became the sounds , , , and . Many words with Anglo-Frisian palatalization survive in Modern English, and the palatalized sounds are typically spelled , , , and in Modern English.
Palatalization only occurred in certain environments, and so it did not apply to all words from the same
root. This is the origin of some
alternations in
cognate
In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language.
Because language change can have radical effects on both the s ...
words, such as ''speak'' and ''speech'' , ''cold'' and ''chill'' , ''burrow'' and ''bury'' , ''dawn'' and ''day'' . Here originates from unpalatalized and from unpalatalized .
Some English words with palatalization have unpalatalized
doublets from the
Northumbrian dialect and from
Old Norse
Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...
, such as ''shirt'' and ''skirt'' , ''church'' and ''kirk'' , ''ditch'' and ''dike'' .
German only underwent
/ʃ/">palatalization of : ''cheese'' and ; ''lie'' and ; ''lay'' and ; ''fish'' and .
The pronunciation of as with a hard is a
spelling pronunciation, since the actual Old English pronunciation gave rise to ''witch''.
Other
Others include the following:
*Palatisation of /s/ to /ʃ/ in modern English
In some English-speaking areas, the sound /s/ changed to /ʃ/, like for example in the words Worcestershire (/wʊs.tɚ.ʃiɹ/ to /wʊʃ.tɚ.ʃiɹ/) and Association (/əˌsoʊsiˈeɪʃən/ to /əˌsoʊʃiˈeɪʃən/).
Various other examples include ''asphalt'', ''(to) assume''.
*Rhotic palatalization:
:This is found in non-rhotic dialects of New York City, according to Labov, triggered by the loss of the
coil–curl merger. It results in the palatalization of /ɝ/. (Labov never specified the resultant vowel.)
*In
Glasgow
Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...
and some other urban Scottish accents, is given an
apico-alveolar articulation, which auditorily gives an impression of a
retracted pronunciation similar to .
Semitic languages
Arabic
= Historical
=
While in most Semitic languages, e.g.
Aramaic,
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...
,
Ge'ez the
Gimel represents a , Arabic is considered unique among them where the Gimel was palatalized in most dialects to Jīm an affricate or further into a fricative . While there is variation in Modern Arabic varieties, most of them reflect this palatalized pronunciation except in
Egyptian Arabic and a number of
Yemeni and
Omani dialects, where it is pronounced as . It is not well known when this change occurred or if it is connected to the pronunciation of Qāf as a , but in most of the
Arabian peninsula
The Arabian Peninsula (, , or , , ) or Arabia, is a peninsula in West Asia, situated north-east of Africa on the Arabian plate. At , comparable in size to India, the Arabian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in the world.
Geographically, the ...
which is the homeland of the Arabic language, the represents a and represents a , except in western and southern
Yemen
Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in West Asia. Located in South Arabia, southern Arabia, it borders Saudi Arabia to Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, the north, Oman to Oman–Yemen border, the northeast, the south-eastern part ...
and parts of
Oman where represents a and represents a , which shows a strong correlation between the palatalization of to and the pronunciation of the as a as shown in the table below:
= Modern Arabic dialects
=
Some modern Arabic varieties developed palatalization of (turning into , , , or ), (turning into or ) and (turning into ), usually when adjacent to front vowel, though these palatalizations also occur in other environments as well. These three palatalizations occur in a variety of dialects, including
Iraqi, rural
Levantine varieties (e.g. rural
Palestinian), a number of
Gulf Arabic dialects, such as
Kuwaiti,
Qatari,
Bahraini, and
Emarati, as well as others like
Najdi, parts of Oman, and various
Bedouin dialects across the
Arab World
The Arab world ( '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, comprises a large group of countries, mainly located in West Asia and North Africa. While the majority of people in ...
. Examples:
* ('dog') > Iraqi and Gulf , and traditional Najdi .
* ('rooster') > rural Palestinian
* ('
Sharjah') > Gulf while other neighboring dialects pronounce it without palatalization.
* ('new') > Gulf
* ('water container') > traditional Najdi , although this phenomenon is fading among the younger generations where is pronounced like in most other dialects in Saudi Arabia.
Palatalization occurs in the pronunciation of the second person feminine singular pronoun in those dialects. For instance:
Classical Arabic 'your eye' (to a female) is pronounced:
* in Gulf, Iraqi, and rural levantine dialects (e.g. rural Palestinian)
* in traditional Najdi and a number of
bedouin dialects.
* or in some southern dialects in Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
Speakers in these dialects that do not use the palatalization would merge the feminine and masculine suffix pronouns e.g. ('your eye' to a male/female) as opposed to Classical Arabic ('your eye' to a male) and ('your eye' to a female) and most other modern urban dialects (to a male) and (to a female).
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic features the palatalization of
kaph (turning into ),
taw (turning into ) and
gimel (turning into ), albeit in some dialects only and seldom in the standardized version of the language.
*In the Upper
Tyari dialects, in a stressed syllable is palatalized and replaced with (e.g. ''beta'', 'house' ).
* may be palatalized to among Assyrians who originate from
Urmia; Iran; and
Nochiya, southeastern Turkey.
*In Urmian and some Tyari dialects, is palatalized to .
Romance languages
The
Romance languages
The Romance languages, also known as the Latin or Neo-Latin languages, are the languages that are Language family, directly descended from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-E ...
developed from
Vulgar Latin, the colloquial form of
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
spoken in the
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...
. Various palatalizations occurred during the historical development of the Romance languages. Some groups of the Romance languages underwent more palatalizations than others. One palatalization affected all groups, some palatalizations affected most groups, and one affected only a few groups.
Gallo-Romance
In
Gallo-Romance, Vulgar Latin * became * very early (and then in French become ), with the subsequent deaffrication and some further developments of the vowel. For instance:
* "cat" >
* "bald" (fem.) >
* * "white" (fem.) >
* "chain" >
* "dear" >
Early English borrowings from French show the original affricate, as ''chamber'' "(private) room" < Old French < Vulgar Latin ; compare French "room".
Mouillé
Mouillé (, "moistened") is a term for palatal consonants in the Romance languages. Palatal consonants in the Romance languages developed from or by palatalization.
''L'' and ''n mouillé'' have a variety of origins in the
Romance languages
The Romance languages, also known as the Latin or Neo-Latin languages, are the languages that are Language family, directly descended from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-E ...
. In these tables, letters that represent or used to represent or are bolded. In French, merged with in pronunciation in the 18th century; in most
dialects of Spanish,
has merged with . Romanian formerly had both and , but both have either merged with or got lost: > > Romanian "woman"; > > Romanian "vineyard".
Satem languages
In certain Indo-European language groups, the
reconstructed "palato-velars" of
Proto-Indo-European () were palatalized into
sibilants. The language groups with and without palatalization are called satem and centum languages, after the characteristic developments of the PIE word for "hundred":
*PIE >
Avestan ''satəm'' (palatalization)
::
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
' (no palatalization)
Slavic languages
The
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavs, Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic language, Proto- ...
are known for their tendency towards palatalization.
In
Proto-Slavic or Common Slavic times the
velars *k *g *x experienced three successive palatalizations. In the
first palatalization they were fronted to *č *ž *š before the front vowels *e *ē *i *ī. In the
second palatalization, the velars changed to *c, *dz or *z, and *s or *š (depending on dialect) before new *ē *ī (either from
monophthongization of previous
diphthongs or from borrowings). The third palatalization, also called the progressive palatalization, was triggered by a preceding *i or *ī and had the same outcomes as the second palatalization.
In the process of
iotation various sounds were also palatalized in front of the
semivowel *j. The results vary by language.
In addition, there were further palatalizing sound changes in the various Slavic languages after the break-up of Proto-Slavic. In some of them, including
Polish and
Russian language, Russian, most sounds were palatalized by a following front vowel, causing the rise of a phonological contrast between ''hard'' (unpalatalized) and ''soft'' (palatalized) consonants. In
Kashubian and the neighboring Polish dialects the reflexes of PS velars *k *g were palatalized a fourth time before front vowels, resulting in palatal
affricates.
Sinitic languages
In many
varieties of Chinese, namely
Mandarin,
Northern Wu, and several others scattered throughout China, the
velar series, , were palatalized before the
medials and shifted to
alveolo-palatal series . So were the
alveolar series, . Alveolo-palatal consonants occur in modern
Standard Chinese and are written as in
Pinyin.
Postal romanization does not show palatalized consonants, reflecting the
dialect of the imperial court during the
Qing dynasty
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...
. For instance, the name of the capital of
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
was formerly spelled ''Peking'', but is now spelled ' , and ''Tientsin'' and ''Sian'' were the former spellings of ' and ' .
See also
*
Iotation, a related process in Slavic languages
*
Labio-palatalization
*
Index of phonetics articles
*
Manner of articulation
*
Palatalization in Standard Chinese
*
Palatalization in Tatar
*
Palatalization in Vulgar Latin
*
Soft sign, a Cyrillic grapheme indicating palatalization
References
Bibliography
* Bynon, Theodora. ''Historical Linguistics''. Cambridge University Press, 1977. (hardback) or (paperback).
*
*
*Crowley, Terry. (1997) ''An Introduction to Historical Linguistics.'' 3rd edition. Oxford University Press.
*
*{{cite book , last=Stieber , author-link=Zdzisław Stieber , first=Zdzisław , date=1989 , title=Zarys gramatyki porównawczej języków słowiańskich , language=pl , location=Warszawa , publisher=
Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe , isbn=83-01-00663-3
External links
Erkki Savolainen, Internetix 1998. ''Suomen murteet – Koprinan murretta''.(with a sound sample with palatalized t')
Assimilation (linguistics)
Vowel shifts
Historical linguistics
Palatal consonants
Slavic phonological features