Palatalisations

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The process of modifying consonantal sounds to be articulated closer to the palate
2. A linguistic phenomenon where certain sounds change their place of articulation towards the hard palate
3. The alteration of speech sounds resulting in a more palatal articulation in phonetics

Etymology: "Palatalisations" is the plural of "palatalisation", the noun for the sound change in which a consonant or vowel shifts toward the hard palate, the arched roof of the mouth behind the front teeth. The word is built from "palatal", itself from Latin "palatum", meaning palate, with the suffix "-isation" (a noun-forming ending from Greek "-izein" via Latin and French, meaning the process of making or becoming something). So the term literally names the process of making a sound palatal. Because the phenomenon is so widespread across the history of languages, the plural form is the one linguists reach for most often, since a single language can undergo several separate palatalisations at different periods. The plural form counts those distinct episodes rather than one general process.