Palatal
From KneeQuickie
Palatal sounds are those articulated at the hard palate. Palatal sounds may be articulated with the middle part of the tongue or with the tip; the term is normally restricted to the former, as the latter is considered a type of retroflex. Front vowels are also palatal, but but vowels are more usually described as "front", "central" and "back" to allow room for finer distinctions, so the term "palatal" is normally applied only to consonants.
The most common phonemic palatal consonant in natlangs is the approximant /j/. Phonemic palatal plosives are rare, because velar plosives tend to become palatal before front vowels, so the palatal/velar distinction is more likely to be allophonic. The palatal nasal, lateral approximant, and unvoiced fricative are all represented in a fair number of languages.
The palate is a large area, so prepalatals (articulated at the front of the palate) often sound different from postpalatals (articulated at the back). For example, a prepalatal [c] sounds much like [tʲ], whereas a postpalatal [c] sounds more like [kʲ].
The IPA has the following symbols for palatal consonants:
| IPA | X-Sampa | |
| Unvoiced plosive | /c/ | /c/ |
| Voiced plosive | /ɟ/ | /J\/ |
| Unvoiced fricative | /ç/ | /C/ |
| Voiced fricative | /ʝ/ | /j\/ |
| Voiced nasal stop | /ɲ/ | /J/ |
| Voiced approximant | /j/ | /j/ |
| Voiced lateral approximant | /ʎ/ | /L/ |
In addition, the following symbols are present in Z-Sampa:
- Trill: /c\/
- Unvoiced non-sibilant fricative: /T\/
- Voiced non-sibilant fricative: /D\/
- Unvoiced lateral fricative: /C\/
- Voiced lateral fricative: /6\/
- Nareal fricative: /J_:/
