Palatalisation

Palatalisation is a phonetic and phonological process in which a consonant acquires a palatal or palatalized quality, typically by the tongue body moving toward the hard palate during articulation. It can be realized as a secondary articulation (often written with a superscript j, as in tʲ, kʲ) or as a distinct palatalized consonant phoneme in the language.

Palatalisation is frequently conditioned by the phonetic environment, especially by a following high front vowel (such as i or e) or by a palatal glide (j). It can also arise through historical sound change or coarticulation with surrounding vowels. The degree of palatalization can range from a light coarticulation to a full, primary palatal articulation, depending on the language and context.

Typologically, palatalisation is contrastive in several languages. Russian, for example, has a well‑developed system of soft (palatalized) consonants that contrast with hard consonants; the soft quality is often indicated orthographically by the soft sign or by following iotated vowels. Polish and Ukrainian likewise exhibit phonemic palatalized consonants in their inventories. Other languages show palatalisation as an allophonic process or as an historical development that yields palatal or palato-alveolar consonants such as [tɕ], [dʑ], [ɕ], or [ʑ].

In summary, palatalisation describes a broad set of phenomena where consonants become palatalized due to articulation, surrounding vowels, or historical change, and its status ranges from a phonetic detail to a phonemic contrast depending on the language.