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palatalization.

The state or quality of being palatalized, of pronouncing a sound with the tongue against the palate of the mouth that normally is not.

14 characters6 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˌpælətəlaɪˈzeɪʃən/Received-Pronunciation/ˌpælətəlɪˈzeɪʃən/General-American
  1. The state or quality of being palatalized, of pronouncing a sound with the tongue against the palate of the mouth that normally is not.

    uncountable
    The word "nature" is commonly pronounced with a palatalization of the letter t to sound like ch.
  2. An instance of pronunciation in which a sound is palatalized.

    countable
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *pleth₂-? Proto-Indo-European *pel-? Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂-osder. Latin palātumder. Old French palatbor. Middle English palate English palate Proto-Indo-European *h₂el- Proto-Indo-European *-is Proto-Indo-European *h₂élisder.? Proto-Italic *-ālis Latin -ālisbor. Old French -albor. ▲ Latin -ālis Old French -elbor. ▲ Latin -ālisbor. Middle English -al English -al English palatal Proto-Indo-European *-id- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-idyéti Proto-Hellenic *-íd͏̌d͏̌ō Ancient Greek -ῐ́ζω (-ĭ́zō)bor. Late Latin -izōder. Middle French -iserbor. Middle English -isen English -ize Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Indo-European *-Hō Proto-Indo-European *-tiHō Proto-Italic *-tiō Latin -tiō Latin -ātiōlbor. Old French -ationbor. Middle English -acioun English -ation English -ization ▲ English palatal ▲ English -ize English palatalize ▲ English -ation English palatalization From palatal + -ization or palatalize + -ation. First attested in 1863 in this spelling, 1862 in the spelling palatalisation.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.