Palatal - Definition and Overview

Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the middle or back part of the tongue raised against the hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth).

Consonants with other primary articulations may be palatalised, that is, accompanied by the raising of the tongue surface towards the hard palate. For example, English [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). The palatal consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:

IPA	Description	Example
		Language	Orthography	IPA	Meaning
	voiceless palatal plosive	Korean	잘 (jal)	[cal]	well
	voiced palatal plosive	Margi	ɟaɗí	[ɟaɗí]	hump of a cow
	palatal nasal	Spanish	mañana	[maɲan̪a]	morning, tomorrow
	voiceless palatal fricative	German	nicht	[nɪçt]	not
	voiced palatal fricative	Spanish	yema	[ʝema]	egg yolk
	palatal approximant	English	yes	[jɛs]	yes
	lateral palatal approximant	Italian	gli	[ʎi]	the (plural)
	voiced palatal implosive
	palatal click

See also

• place of articulation
• List of phonetics topics