palatalize
/ˈpalətəlʌɪz
/(also palatalise)
verb [with object] Phonetics
Make (a speech sound) palatal, especially by changing a velar to a palatal by moving the point of contact between tongue and palate further forward in the mouth: the sound is palatalized in some dialects...
- These transformations have led, in fact, to some of the most distinguishing characteristics of the different branches of the IE family (e.g. the ‘soft’ palatalized consonants in the Slavic languages).
- Elsewhere, when followed by unstressed i and another vowel, t is commonly palatalized to produce the voiceless palato-alveolar fricative sh sound.
- Such consonants are phonetically palatalized, and in the International Phonetic Alphabet they are indicated by a superscript 'j'.
Derivatives
palatalization
/ noun ...- Linguistically, palatalization is a phonological process in which a sound takes on a palatal place of articulation usually in assimilation to a neighboring palatal sound such as /i/ and /y/.
- Investigation of the social distribution of palatalization shows that women's speeches reflect frequent and advanced palatalization, while men's do not.
- For example, in Jamaican Creole the palatalization of /k/ and /g/ as in /kyar/ ‘car’ and /gwain/ ‘going’ were customary in some of the varieties of British English transported to Jamaica in the eighteenth century.