Palatalization (phonetics)

Palatalized
◌ʲ
IPA number	421
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ʲ
Unicode (hex)	U+02B2

In linguistics, palatalization (/ˌpælətəlaɪˈzeɪʃən/, also US /-lᵻˈzeɪʃ-/) or palatization refers to a way of pronouncing a consonant in which part of the tongue is moved close to the hard palate. A consonant pronounced this way is called a palatalized consonant. Palatalized consonants have palatal secondary articulation, or two places of articulation, one of which is palatal. They contrast with palatal consonants, which have palatal primary articulation.

Palatalized consonants are pronounced as if followed very closely by the palatal approximant [j], the sound of y in yellow. For example, in the Polish word kiedy "when", the letters ki represent a palatalized [k], transcribed as [kʲ]. This sound is the same as the ⟨c⟩ in the English cube.

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