Palatalization

Target audience: intermediate learners.

Alveolar or velar consonants before high or front vowels tend to be influenced by them. The tongue gets pulled forward and/or up to anticipate the following vowel, which affects the consonant.

Examples

  • [k, g] before front vowels [i, e] => [tʃ, dʒ] (Italian)
  • [k, g] before front vowels [i, e] => [ts, dz] (Old French)
  • [t, d, s] before high vowel [i] => [tʃ, dʒ, ʃ] (Japanese)

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