Palatal consonants are
consonantIn articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the upper vocal tract, the upper vocal tract being defined as that part of the vocal tract that lies above the larynx...
s articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the
hard palateThe hard palate is a thin horizontal bony plate of the skull, located in the roof of the mouth. It spans the arch formed by the upper teeth.It is formed by the palatine process of the maxilla and horizontal plate of palatine bone....
(the middle part of the roof of the mouth). Consonants with the tip of the tongue curled back against the palate are called
retroflexIn phonetics, retroflex consonants are consonant sounds used in some languages. The tongue articulates with the roof of the oral cavity behind the alveolar ridge, and may even be curled back to touch the palate: that is, they are articulated in the postalveolar to palatal region of the...
.
The most common type of palatal consonant is the extremely common approximant , which ranks as overall, among the ten most common sounds in the world's languages. The
nasalA nasal consonant is produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The oral cavity still acts as a resonance chamber for the sound, but the air does not escape through the mouth as it is blocked by the lips or tongue...
is also common, occurring in around 35 percent of the world's languages, in most of which its equivalent
obstruentAn obstruent is a consonant sound formed by obstructing airflow, causing increased air pressure in the vocal tract. In phonetics, articulation may be divided into two large classes, obstruents and sonorants....
is not the plosive , but the
affricateAffricates are consonants that begin as stops but release as a fricative rather than directly into the following vowel.- Samples :...
{{Place of articulation}}
Palatal consonants are consonantIn articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the upper vocal tract, the upper vocal tract being defined as that part of the vocal tract that lies above the larynx...
s articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the
hard palateThe hard palate is a thin horizontal bony plate of the skull, located in the roof of the mouth. It spans the arch formed by the upper teeth.It is formed by the palatine process of the maxilla and horizontal plate of palatine bone....
(the middle part of the roof of the mouth). Consonants with the tip of the tongue curled back against the palate are called
retroflexIn phonetics, retroflex consonants are consonant sounds used in some languages. The tongue articulates with the roof of the oral cavity behind the alveolar ridge, and may even be curled back to touch the palate: that is, they are articulated in the postalveolar to palatal region of the...
.
The most common type of palatal consonant is the extremely common approximant {{IPA|[j]}}, which ranks as overall, among the ten most common sounds in the world's languages. The
nasalA nasal consonant is produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The oral cavity still acts as a resonance chamber for the sound, but the air does not escape through the mouth as it is blocked by the lips or tongue...
{{IPA|ɲ}} is also common, occurring in around 35 percent of the world's languages, in most of which its equivalent
obstruentAn obstruent is a consonant sound formed by obstructing airflow, causing increased air pressure in the vocal tract. In phonetics, articulation may be divided into two large classes, obstruents and sonorants....
is not the plosive {{IPA|c}}, but the
affricateAffricates are consonants that begin as stops but release as a fricative rather than directly into the following vowel.- Samples :...
{{Place of articulation}}
Palatal consonants are consonantIn articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the upper vocal tract, the upper vocal tract being defined as that part of the vocal tract that lies above the larynx...
s articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the
hard palateThe hard palate is a thin horizontal bony plate of the skull, located in the roof of the mouth. It spans the arch formed by the upper teeth.It is formed by the palatine process of the maxilla and horizontal plate of palatine bone....
(the middle part of the roof of the mouth). Consonants with the tip of the tongue curled back against the palate are called
retroflexIn phonetics, retroflex consonants are consonant sounds used in some languages. The tongue articulates with the roof of the oral cavity behind the alveolar ridge, and may even be curled back to touch the palate: that is, they are articulated in the postalveolar to palatal region of the...
.
The most common type of palatal consonant is the extremely common approximant {{IPA|[j]}}, which ranks as overall, among the ten most common sounds in the world's languages. The
nasalA nasal consonant is produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The oral cavity still acts as a resonance chamber for the sound, but the air does not escape through the mouth as it is blocked by the lips or tongue...
{{IPA|ɲ}} is also common, occurring in around 35 percent of the world's languages, in most of which its equivalent
obstruentAn obstruent is a consonant sound formed by obstructing airflow, causing increased air pressure in the vocal tract. In phonetics, articulation may be divided into two large classes, obstruents and sonorants....
is not the plosive {{IPA|c}}, but the
affricateAffricates are consonants that begin as stops but release as a fricative rather than directly into the following vowel.- Samples :...
{{IPAThe voiceless palato-alveolar affricate or domed postalveolar affricate is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. It is familiar to English speakers as the "ch" sound in "chip"....
. Only a few languages in northern Eurasia, the Americas and central Africa contrast palatal plosives with postalveolar affricates - as in
HungarianHungarian is a Uralic language unrelated to most other languages in Europe. It is mainly spoken in Hungary and by the Hungarian minorities in the seven neighbouring countries...
,
CzechCzech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. Czech is similar to and mutually intelligible with Slovak and, to a lesser extent, to Polish and Sorbian. - Official status :Czech is widely...
,
SlovakThe Slovak language , is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Slavic languages ....
and
AlbanianAlbanian is a unique Indo-European language spoken by nearly 6 million people, primarily in Albania and Kosovo but also in other areas of the Balkans in which there is an Albanian population, including western Macedonia, Montenegro, and southern Serbia. Albanian is also spoken by native enclaves...
.
Consonants with other primary articulations may be
palatalisedPalatalization or palatalisation generally refers to two phenomena:*As a process or the result of a process, the effect that front vowels and the palatal approximant frequently have on consonants;...
, that is, accompanied by the raising of the tongue surface towards the hard palate. For example, English {{IPA|[ʃ]}} (spelled
sh) has such a palatal component, although its primary articulation involves the tip of the tongue and the upper gum (this type of articulation is called palatoalveolar).
In
phonologyPhonology is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use. Just as a language has syntax and vocabulary, it also has a phonology in the sense of a sound system...
,
alveolo-palatalIn phonetics, alveolo-palatal consonants are palatalized postalveolar fricatives, articulated with the blade of the tongue behind the alveolar ridge, and the body of the tongue raised toward the palate...
, palatoalveolar and palatovelar consonants are commonly grouped as palatals, since these categories rarely contrast with true palatals. Sometimes palatalized
alveolarsAlveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth...
or
dentalsIn linguistics, a dental consonant or dental is a consonant that is articulated with the tongue against the upper teeth, such as , , , and in some languages...
can be analyzed in this manner as well.
The palatal consonants identified by the
International Phonetic AlphabetThe International Phonetic Alphabet
["The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...]
are:
| IPA |
Description |
Example |
| Language |
Orthography |
IPA |
Meaning |
 |
palatal nasal The palatal nasal is a type of consonant, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is J. The IPA symbol is a lowercase letter n with a leftward-pointing tail protruding from the bottom...
|
FrenchFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
|
agneau |
[a}}{{IPA|ɲ}}{{IPA|o]}} |
lamb |
 |
voiceless palatal plosive The voiceless palatal plosive is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is c....
|
HungarianHungarian is a Uralic language unrelated to most other languages in Europe. It is mainly spoken in Hungary and by the Hungarian minorities in the seven neighbouring countries...
|
hattyú |
[hɒ}}{{IPA|cː}}{{IPA|uː]}} |
swan |
 |
voiced palatal plosive The voiced palatal plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is J\....
|
LatvianLatvian is the official state language of Latvia. It is also sometimes referred to as Lettish. There are about 1.4 million native Latvian speakers in Latvia and about 150,000 abroad. The Latvian language has a relatively large number of non-native speakers, atypical for a small language...
|
ģimene |
[}}{{IPA|ɟ}}{{IPA|imene]}} |
family |
 |
voiceless palatal fricative The voiceless palatal fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is C...
|
German German is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by...
|
nicht |
[nɪ}}{{IPA|ç}}{{IPA|t]}} |
not |
 |
voiced palatal fricative The voiced palatal fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is j\....
|
SpanishSpanish or Castilian is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that originated in northern Spain and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile, evolving into the principal language of government and trade in the Iberian peninsula...
|
yema |
[}}{{IPA|ʝ}}{{IPA|ema]}} |
egg yolk |
 |
palatal approximant The palatal approximant is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is '...
|
English English is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
|
yes |
[}}{{IPA|j}}{{IPA|ɛs]}} |
yes |
 |
palatal lateral approximant The palatal lateral approximant is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , a turned letter "y" , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is L.-Features:Features of the palatal lateral...
|
ItalianItalian is a Romance language spoken by about 60 million people in Italy, and by a total of around 70 million in the world. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four official languages. It is also the official language of San Marino, as well as the primary language of Vatican City...
|
gli |
[}}{{IPA|ʎ}}{{IPA|i]}} |
the (masculine plural) |
 |
voiced palatal implosive The voiced palatal implosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is J\_<...
|
SwahiliSwahili is spoken by various ethnic groups that inhabit several large stretches of the Indian Ocean coastline from southern Somalia to northern Mozambique, including the Comoros Islands...
|
hujambo |
[hu}}{{IPA|ʄ}}{{IPA|ambo]}} |
hello |
See also
- Place of articulation
In articulatory phonetics, the place of articulation of a consonant is the point of contact, where an obstruction occurs in the vocal tract between an active articulator and a passive articulator...
- List of phonetics topics
{{Consonants}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Palatal Consonant}}