Palatalization (phonetics)

This article is about the phonetic feature. For the sound change, see Palatalization (sound change).
Palatalized
◌ʲ
IPA number421
Encoding
Entity (decimal)ʲ
Unicode (hex)U+02B2

In phonetics, palatalization (/ˌpælətəlaɪˈzeɪʃən/ ⓘ, US also /-lɪ-/) or palatization is a way of pronouncing a consonant in which part of the tongue is moved close to the hard palate. Consonants pronounced this way are said to be palatalized and are transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet by affixing a superscript j, ⟨ʲ⟩, to the base letter. Palatalization is not phonemic in English, but it is in Slavic languages such as Russian and Bulgarian; Uralic languages such as Estonian, Karelian, Veps, Enets and Mansi; Northwest Caucasian languages such as Abkhaz; and other various languages such as Irish, Lithuanian, Marshallese and Kashmiri.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.