Palatal consonant

Places of articulation

Dorsal consonant

Palatal consonant

Labial-palatal consonant

Velar consonant

Labial-velar consonant

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 [S] (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 Symbol	Name	Example		Meaning
c	voiceless palatal plosive	Korean	[cal]	살 jal (="well")
ɟ	voiced palatal plosive	Margi	[ɟaɗí]	(="hump of a cow")
ɲ	palatal nasal	Spanish	[maɲan̪a]	mañana (="morning")
ç	voiceless palatal fricative	German	[nɪçt]	nicht (="not")
ʝ	voiced palatal fricative	Spanish	[ʝema]	yema (="egg yolk")
j	palatal approximant	English	[jɛs]	yes
ʎ	lateral palatal approximant	Italian	[ʎi]	gli (="the (plural)")
ʄ	voiced palatal implosive

Palatal consonant

See also