Palatalization

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Palatalization

Palatalization generally refers to two phenomena:

1- As a process or the result of a process, the effect that front vowels and the palatal approximant /j/ frequently have on consonants;

2- As a phonetic description, the secondary articulation of consonants by which the body of the tongue is raised toward the hard palate during the articulation of the consonant. Such consonants are phonetically palatalized, and in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) they are indicated by a superscript /j/, as /tʲ/ or /tʃ/ for a palatalized /t/.

The second may be the result of the first, but they often differ. A vowel may "palatalize" a consonant (sense 1), but the result might not be a palatalized consonant in the phonetic sense (sense 2), or the phonetically palatalized (sense 2) consonant may occur irrespective of front vowels.

The term ‘palatalization’ denotes a phonological process by which consonants acquire secondary palatal articulation or shift their primary place towards or close to the palatal region. Palatalization is a type of consonant-vowel interactions.

English, in fact, has at least three kinds of alternations that fall under the general definition of palatalization processes.

The first process - called coronal palatalization involves an alternation between alveolars /t/, /d/, /s/, /z/ and palato-alveolars /tʃ/, /ʤ/, /ʃ/, and /ʒ/ as shown is (1).

(1)
/t/ - /tʃ/
perpetuity - perpetual
/d/ - /ʤ/
residue - residual
/s/ - /ʃ/
grase - grasious
/z/ - /ʒ/
please - pleasure

The second process – called velar softening is exhibited by alternations between velar stops /k/ and /g/ and coronal fricatives or affricates /s/ and /ʤ/ respectively as shown in (2)

(2)
/k/ - /s/
medication - medicine
critic - critisize
/g/ - /ʤ/
analog - analogy
pedagogue - pedagogy

The third process – called spirantization exhibits alternations between the alveolar stop /t/ and the alveolar fricative /s/ (or /ʃ/ in conjunction with coronal palatalization). The latter segment occurs before suffixes with an unsyllabified /i/ as shown in (3).

(3)
/t/ - /s/
secret - secrecy
regent - regency
emergent - emergency
/t/ - /ʃ/
part - partial

Palatalization with /u:/ sound

In some words the palatal sound /j/ precedes the sound /u:/ for the combined pronunciation of /ju:/.

This happens when the vowel "u" is:

1- Word initial
2- Syllable initial after alveolar consonant "l", "n", "t", "d". The combination with "t" is /tʃ/, and with /d/ is /ʤ/.
3- After velar consonants "c" (when "c" has the /k/ sound) and "g", and labio-dental consonants "f" and "v".
4- After "h" and labial consonants "m". "p". and "b"

/ju:/
Group 1: u (word initial)  use, usual, university
Group 2: l/n/t/d+u (syllable initial)   value, manual, actual, gradual
Group 3: c/g/f/v+u (when c sounds /k/)  cute, regular, refuse, revue
Group 4: h/m/p/b+ u   huge, amuse, reputation, vocabulary
Group 5: ue   fuel, hue, rescue
Group 6: ew   few, pew, skew
Group 7: eau   beautiful

When "ue" or "ew" follow the digraphs "ch" and "cl" are pronounced /u:/.
Group 1: ue   clue
Group 2: ew   chew

The "ue" spelling is usually silent when it occurs at the end of a word and follows the letters "g", "ng", or "q" (examples include the words fatigue, tongue, and unique). An exception is the word argue, which ends in a long u sound.
Group 1: ue   fatigue, tongue, unique
Exception: argue

Palatalization with /ɚ/ sound

In some words the palatal sound /j/ or /w/ precedes the sound /ɚ/ for the combined pronunciations of:

/wɑɚ/
/jɚ/,
/juɚ/
/ajɚ/.
/awɚ/
/ojɚ/.

This happens with vowels when:

1- A word is spelled with "oir" is pronounced /wɑɚ/, the "o" is /w/ and the "ir" is /ɑɚ/

/wɑɚ/
Group 1: o+ir   noir, menoir

2- A word is spelled with "ure" are preceded by /j/ sound for the combined pronunciation of /jɚ/)

/jɚ/
Group 2: ure   cure

3- A word spelled with "ur" are preceded by /j/ for the combined pronunciation of /juɚ/)

/juɚ/
Group 3: ur   fury

This happens with diphthongs when:

1- The diphthong sound /aɪ/ changes to /aj/. In this group the palatal sound /aj/ precedes the sound /ɚ/ for the combined pronunciation of /ajɚ/.

/ajɚ/
(/aɪ/ + /ɚ/)
Group 1:
(a): er   buyer
(b): ire   hire
(c): iar   friar
(d): ir   choir

2- The diphthong sound /aʊ/ changes to /aw/. In this group the sound /aw/ precedes the sound /ɚ/ for the combined pronunciation of /awɚ/

/awɚ/
(/aʊ/ + 12. /ɚ/)
Group 2:
(a): our   flour
(b): ower   power

3- The diphthong sound /oɪ/ changes to /oj/. /oɪ/ + /ɚ/. In this group the sound /oj/ precedes the sound /ɚ/ for the combined pronunciation of /ojɚ/.

/ojɚ/
Group 3: oyer   coyer, employer

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