Palatalization is a historical-linguistic sound change that results in a palatalized articulation of a consonant or, in certain cases, a front vowel. Palatalization involves change in the place or manner of articulation of consonants, or the fronting or raising of vowels. In some cases, palatalization involves assimilation or lenition.
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.
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. 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 pronounced as /[j]/. The sound that results from palatalization may vary from language to language. For example, palatalization of pronounced as /[t]/ may produce pronounced as /[tʲ], [tʃ], [tɕ], [tsʲ], [ts]/, etc. A change from pronounced as /[t]/ to pronounced as /[tʃ]/ may pass through pronounced as /[tʲ]/ as an intermediate state, but there is no requirement for that to happen.
In the Nupe language, pronounced as //s// and pronounced as //z// are palatalized both before front vowels and pronounced as //j//, while velars are only palatalized before front vowels. In Ciluba, pronounced as //j// palatalizes only a preceding pronounced as //t//, pronounced as //s//, pronounced as //l// or pronounced as //n//. In some variants of Ojibwe, velars are palatalized before pronounced as //j//, but apicals are not. In Indo-Aryan languages, dentals and pronounced as //r// are palatalized when occurring in clusters before pronounced as //j//, but velars are not.
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 is a famous example.
A similar change is reconstructed in the history of Old French in which Bartsch's law turned open vowels into pronounced as /[e]/ or pronounced as /[ɛ]/ 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 pronounced as //a//.
In Erzya, a Uralic language, the open vowel pronounced as /link/ is raised to near-open pronounced as /link/ after a palatalized consonant, as in the name of the language, pronounced as /[erzʲæ]/.
In Russian, the back vowels pronounced as //u o// are fronted to central pronounced as /[ʉ ɵ]/, and the open vowel pronounced as //a// is raised to near-open pronounced as /[æ]/, near palatalized consonants. The palatalized consonants also factor in how unstressed vowels are reduced.
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 pronounced as //l// were palatalized once or twice. This first palatalization was unconditioned. It resulted in a cluster with a palatal lateral pronounced as /[ʎ]/, a palatal lateral on its own, or a cluster with a palatal approximant pronounced as /[j]/. In a second palatalization, the pronounced as //k// was affricated to pronounced as /[tʃ]/ or spirantized to pronounced as /[ʃ]/.
> Istriot ciamà pronounced as //tʃaˈma//, Portuguese Portuguese: chamar pronounced as //ʃɐˈmaɾ//
In the Western Romance languages, Latin pronounced as /[kt]/ was palatalized once or twice. The first palatalization was unconditioned: the pronounced as //k// was vocalized to pronounced as /[i̯t]/ or spirantized to pronounced as /[çt]/. In a second palatalization, the pronounced as //t// was affricated to pronounced as /[tʃ]/:
> Spanish Spanish; Castilian: noche, western Occitan Occitan (post 1500);: nuèch, Romansh Romansh: notg
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,[1] the lenition of the palatalized consonant is still a part of the palatalization process itself.
In Japanese, allophonic palatalization affected the dental plosives pronounced as //t// and pronounced as //d//, turning them into alveolo-palatal affricates pronounced as /[tɕ]/ and pronounced as /[dʑ]/ before pronounced as /[i]/, romanized as ⟨ch⟩ and ⟨j⟩ respectively. Japanese has, however, recently regained phonetic pronounced as /[ti]/ and pronounced as /[di]/ 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 but for the strong phonotactical resistance of its native speakers that turn dental plosives into post-alveolar affricates even in loanwords: McDonald's pronounced as /pt/.
For example, Votic has undergone such a change historically, *keeli → Votic: tšeeli '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') Spanish; Castilian: g has ended up as pronounced as /[x]/ from a long process where Latin pronounced as //ɡ// became palatalized to pronounced as /[ɡʲ]/ (Late Latin) and then affricated to pronounced as /[dʒ]/ (Proto-Romance), deaffricated to pronounced as /[ʒ]/ (Old Spanish), devoiced to pronounced as /[ʃ]/ (16th century), and finally retracted to a velar, giving pronounced as /[x]/ . (See History of the Spanish language and Phonological history of Spanish coronal fricatives for more information).
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.
In Anglo-Frisian, the language that gave rise to English and the Frisian languages, the velar stops pronounced as //k ɡ// and the consonant cluster pronounced as //sk// were palatalized in certain cases and became the sounds pronounced as //tʃ//, pronounced as //dʒ//, pronounced as //j//, and pronounced as //ʃ//. Many words with Anglo-Frisian palatalization survive in Modern English, and the palatalized sounds are typically spelled (ch), ((d)ge), (y), and (sh) 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 words, such as speak and speech pronounced as //ˈspiːk, ˈspiːtʃ//, cold and chill pronounced as //ˈkoʊld, ˈtʃɪl//, burrow and bury pronounced as //ˈbʌroʊ, ˈbɛri//, dawn and day pronounced as //ˈdɔːn, ˈdeɪ//. Here (k) originates from unpalatalized pronounced as //k// and (w) from unpalatalized pronounced as //ɡ//.
Some English words with palatalization have unpalatalized doublets from the Northumbrian dialect and from Old Norse, such as shirt and skirt pronounced as //ˈʃərt, ˈskərt//, church and kirk pronounced as //ˈtʃɜrtʃ, ˈkɜrk//, ditch and dike pronounced as //ˈdɪtʃ, ˈdaɪk//. German only underwent palatalization of pronounced as //sk//: cheese pronounced as //tʃiːz// and German: Käse pronounced as //kɛːzə//; lie pronounced as //ˈlaɪ// and German: liegen pronounced as //ˈliːɡən//; lay pronounced as //ˈleɪ// and German: legen pronounced as //ˈleːɡən//; fish and German: Fisch pronounced as //fɪʃ//.
The pronunciation of English, Old (ca.450-1100);: wicca as pronounced as /[ˈwɪkə]/ with a hard (c) is a spelling pronunciation, since the actual Old English pronunciation gave rise to witch.
Others include the following:
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.
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.)
While in most Semitic languages, e.g. Aramaic, Hebrew, Ge'ez the Gimel represents a pronounced as /[ɡ]/, Arabic is considered unique among them where the Gimel was palatalized in most dialects to Jīm (Arabic: [[ج]]) an affricate pronounced as /[d͡ʒ]/ or further into a fricative pronounced as /[ʒ]/. 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 pronounced as /[ɡ]/. It is not well known when this change occurred or if it is connected to the pronunciation of Qāf (Arabic: [[ق]]) as a pronounced as /[ɡ]/, but in most of the Arabian peninsula which is the homeland of the Arabic language, the (Arabic: [[ج]]) represents a pronounced as /[d͡ʒ]/ and (Arabic: [[ق]]) represents a pronounced as /[ɡ]/, except in western and southern Yemen and parts of Oman where (Arabic: [[ج]]) represents a pronounced as /[ɡ]/ and (Arabic: [[ق]]) represents a pronounced as /[q]/, which shows a strong correlation between the palatalization of (Arabic: [[ج]]) to pronounced as /[d͡ʒ]/ and the pronunciation of the (Arabic: [[ق]]) as a pronounced as /[ɡ]/ as shown in the table below:
| Pronunciation of the letters | |||
| ج | ق | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Proto-Semitic | pronounced as //ɡ// | pronounced as //kʼ// | |
| Parts of Southern Arabia | pronounced as //ɡ// | pronounced as //q// | |
| Most Arabian Peninsular Dialects | pronounced as //d͡ʒ// | pronounced as //ɡ// | |
| Modern Standard Arabic | pronounced as //d͡ʒ// | pronounced as //q// |
Some modern Arabic varieties developed palatalization of (ك) (turning pronounced as /link/ into pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, or pronounced as /link/), (ق) (turning pronounced as /[ɡ~q]/ into pronounced as /link/ or pronounced as /link/) and (ج) (turning pronounced as /link/ into pronounced as /link/), 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,[3] [4] such as Kuwaiti, Qatari, Bahraini, and Emarati, as well as others like Najdi,[5] parts of Oman,[6] and various Bedouin dialects across the Arab World.[7] Examples:
Palatalization occurs in the pronunciation of the second person feminine singular pronoun in those dialects. For instance:
Classical Arabic Arabic: عَيْنُكِ 'your eye' (to a female) pronounced as //ʕajnuki// is pronounced:
Speakers in these dialects that do not use the palatalization would merge the feminine and masculine suffix pronouns e.g. Arabic: عينك pronounced as /[ʕe̞ːn'''ək''']/ ('your eye' to a male/female) as opposed to Classical Arabic pronounced as //ʕajnuka// Arabic: عَيْنُكَ ('your eye' to a male) and pronounced as //ʕajnuki// Arabic: عَيْنُكِ ('your eye' to a female) and most other modern urban dialects pronounced as //ʕeːnak// (to a male) and pronounced as //ʕeːnik// (to a female).
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic features the palatalization of kaph (turning pronounced as //k// into pronounced as /link/), taw (turning pronounced as //t// into pronounced as /link/) and gimel (turning pronounced as //ɡ// into pronounced as /link/),[8] albeit in some dialects only and seldom in the standardized version of the language.[9]
The Romance languages developed from Vulgar Latin, the colloquial form of Latin spoken in the Roman Empire. 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.
In Gallo-Romance, Vulgar Latin *pronounced as /[ka]/ became *pronounced as /[tʃa]/ very early (and then in French become pronounced as /[ʃa]/), with the subsequent deaffrication and some further developments of the vowel. For instance:
Early English borrowings from French show the original affricate, as chamber pronounced as //ˈtʃeɪmbəɾ// "(private) room" < Old French French, Old (842-ca.1400);: chambre pronounced as //tʃɑ̃mbrə// < Vulgar Latin Latin: camera; compare French French: chambre pronounced as //ʃɑ̃bʁ// "room".
Mouillé (in French pronounced as /muje/, "moistened") is a term for palatal consonants in the Romance languages. Palatal consonants in the Romance languages developed from pronounced as /link/ or pronounced as /link/ by palatalization.
| l mouillé | n mouillé | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Italian | Italian: gl(i)|italic=unset | Italian: gn|italic=unset | |
| French | French: il(l)|italic=unset | French: gn|italic=unset | |
| Occitan | Occitan (post 1500);: lh|italic=unset | Occitan (post 1500);: nh|italic=unset | |
| Catalan | Catalan; Valencian: ll|italic=unset | Catalan; Valencian: ny|italic=unset | |
| Spanish | Spanish; Castilian: ll|italic=unset | Spanish; Castilian: ñ|italic=unset | |
| Portuguese | Portuguese: lh|italic=unset | Portuguese: nh|italic=unset |
L and n mouillé have a variety of origins in the Romance languages. In these tables, letters that represent or used to represent pronounced as /link/ or pronounced as /link/ are bolded. In French, pronounced as //ʎ// merged with pronounced as //j// in pronunciation in the 18th century; in most dialects of Spanish, pronounced as //ʎ// has merged with pronounced as //ʝ//. Romanian formerly had both pronounced as //ʎ// and pronounced as //ɲ//, but both have either merged with pronounced as //j// or got lost: Latin: muliĕr(em) > pronounced as /
| Italian | Italian: mi'''gli'''ore|italic=unset | Italian: ca'''gli'''are|italic=unset | Italian: orecchia|italic=unset | Italian: cavallo|italic=unset | Italian: luna|italic=unset | Italian: chiave|italic=unset | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| French | French: me'''ill'''eur|italic=unset | French: ca'''ill'''er|italic=unset | French: ore'''ill'''e|italic=unset | French: cheval|italic=unset | French: lune|italic=unset | French: clé|italic=unset | |
| Piedmontese | mijor | cajé | orija | caval | lun-a | ciav | |
| Occitan | Occitan (post 1500);: me'''lh'''or|italic=unset | Occitan (post 1500);: ca'''lh'''ar|italic=unset | Occitan (post 1500);: aure'''lh'''a|italic=unset | Occitan (post 1500);: caval|italic=unset | Occitan (post 1500);: luna|italic=unset | Occitan (post 1500);: clau|italic=unset | |
| Catalan | Catalan; Valencian: mi'''ll'''or|italic=unset | Catalan; Valencian: qua'''ll'''ar|italic=unset | Catalan; Valencian: ore'''ll'''a|italic=unset | Catalan; Valencian: cava'''ll'''|italic=unset | Catalan; Valencian: '''ll'''una|italic=unset | Catalan; Valencian: clau|italic=unset | |
| Spanish | Spanish; Castilian: me'''j'''or|italic=unset | Spanish; Castilian: cua'''j'''ar|italic=unset | Spanish; Castilian: ore'''j'''a|italic=unset | Spanish; Castilian: caba'''ll'''o|italic=unset | Spanish; Castilian: luna|italic=unset | Spanish; Castilian: '''ll'''ave|italic=unset | |
| Portuguese | Portuguese: me'''lh'''or|italic=unset | Portuguese: coa'''lh'''ar|italic=unset | Portuguese: ore'''lh'''a|italic=unset | Portuguese: cavalo|italic=unset | Portuguese: lua|italic=unset | Portuguese: chave|italic=unset | |
| Romanian | — | Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan: închega|italic=unset | Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan: ureche|italic=unset | Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan: cal|italic=unset | Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan: lună|italic=unset | Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan: cheie|italic=unset |
| Latin: annus|italic=unset "year" ! | Latin: somnus|italic=unset "sleep" | Latin: somnium|italic=unset "dream" | Latin: ung(u)la|italic=unset "claw" | Latin: vinum|italic=unset "wine" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Italian | Italian: si'''gn'''ore|italic=unset | Italian: co'''gn'''ato|italic=unset | Italian: anno|italic=unset | Italian: sonno|italic=unset | Italian: so'''gn'''o|italic=unset | Italian: unghia|italic=unset | Italian: vino|italic=unset | |
| French | French: sei'''gn'''eur|italic=unset | — | French: an|italic=unset | French: somme|italic=unset | French: songe|italic=unset | French: ongle|italic=unset | French: vin|italic=unset | |
| Occitan | Occitan (post 1500);: se'''nh'''or|italic=unset | Occitan (post 1500);: cu'''nh'''at|italic=unset | Occitan (post 1500);: an|italic=unset | Occitan (post 1500);: sòm|italic=unset | Occitan (post 1500);: sòmi|italic=unset | Occitan (post 1500);: ongla|italic=unset | Occitan (post 1500);: vin|italic=unset | |
| Catalan | Catalan; Valencian: se'''ny'''or|italic=unset | Catalan; Valencian: cu'''ny'''at|italic=unset | Catalan; Valencian: a'''ny'''|italic=unset | Catalan; Valencian: son|italic=unset | Catalan; Valencian: somni|italic=unset | Catalan; Valencian: ungla|italic=unset | Catalan; Valencian: vi|italic=unset | |
| Spanish | Spanish; Castilian: se'''ñ'''or|italic=unset | Spanish; Castilian: cu'''ñ'''ado|italic=unset | Spanish; Castilian: a'''ñ'''o|italic=unset | Spanish; Castilian: sue'''ñ'''o|italic=unset | Spanish; Castilian: sue'''ñ'''o|italic=unset | Spanish; Castilian: u'''ñ'''a|italic=unset | Spanish; Castilian: vino|italic=unset | |
| Portuguese | Portuguese: se'''nh'''or|italic=unset | Portuguese: cu'''nh'''ado|italic=unset | Portuguese: ano|italic=unset | Portuguese: sono|italic=unset | Portuguese: so'''nh'''o|italic=unset | Portuguese: u'''nh'''a|italic=unset | Portuguese: vi'''nh'''o|italic=unset | |
| Romanian | — | Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan: cumnat|italic=unset | Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan: an|italic=unset | Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan: somn|italic=unset | — | Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan: unghie|italic=unset | Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan: vin|italic=unset |
See main article: Centum–satem isogloss. 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":
Latin Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: centum pronounced as //ˈkentum// (no palatalization)
See main article: Slavic first palatalization, Slavic second palatalization and History of Proto-Slavic. The Slavic languages 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, 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.[13]
In many varieties of Chinese, namely Mandarin, Northern Wu, and several others scattered throughout China, the velar series, pronounced as //k kʰ x//, were palatalized before the medials pronounced as //i y// and shifted to alveolo-palatal series pronounced as //tɕ tɕʰ ɕ//. 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. For instance, the name of the capital of China was formerly spelled Peking, but is now spelled , and Tientsin and Sian were the former spellings of and pronounced as /[ɕí.án]/.
| Pronunciation高 | kɑu(古勞切) | ꜀kau | ꜀kɔ | ꜀kau | ꜀kau | ꜀kau | ꜀kau | ꜀kɔ | ꜀kɔ | ꜀kɔ | ꜀kɔ | ꜀kæ | ꜀kɜ | ꜀kau | ꜀kɤ | ꜀kau | ꜀kau | ꜀kou | ꜀kou | ꜀ko | ꜀kau (literary), ꜀ko (vernacular) | ꜀kɔ | ꜂au | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pronunciation交 | kˠau(古肴切) | ꜀tɕiau | ꜀tɕiɔ | ꜀tɕiau | ꜀tɕiau | ꜀tɕiau (literary), ꜀kau (vernacular) | ꜀tɕiau | ꜀tɕiɔ | ꜀tɕiau (literary), ꜀kɔ (vernacular) | ꜀tɕiɔ | ꜀tɕiɔ (literary), ꜀kɔ (vernacular) | ꜀tɕiæ (literary), ꜀kæ (vernacular) | ꜀kuɔ | ꜀tɕiau | ꜀tɕiɤ | ꜀kau | ꜀kau, kau꜄ | ꜀kau | ꜀kau, ꜀kʰau | ꜀kau (literary), ꜀ka (vernacular) | ꜀kau | ꜀kau (literary), ꜀ka (vernacular) | ꜀kau |