Palatalization

Palatalization (UK: palatalisation) denotes a number of processes in phonetics by which the articulation of a consonant is changed under influence of a preceding or following front vowel or the palatal or palatalized consonant, esp. the palatal approximant [ j]. As a general term palatalization can cover various different phonetic and phonological processes such as phonological palatalization, phonetic palatalization, assibilation, and coronalization. The term "palatalization" is sometimes used by European linguists (German Palatalisierung) to denote a type of vowel mutation more commonly referred to as i-umlaut (UK: i-mutation). The French term mouillure (German Mouillierung) is another word for (phonemic) palatalization.