Palatovelar

Part of speech: adjective, noun

Definitions

1. Relating to or articulated with both the palate and the velum in phonetics; describing consonant sounds produced by raising the tongue to touch or approach the hard palate and the soft palate simultaneously; characterizing speech sounds formed at the boundary between the middle and back parts of the roof of the mouth
2. Pertaining to phonetic articulation involving contact between the tongue and the area of the mouth that includes both the palate and the velum; indicating a class of consonants produced by a dual place of articulation on the roof of the oral cavity; referring to sounds that combine features of palatal and velar consonants in speech production
3. Concerned with speech sounds created by positioning the tongue against or near both the hard and soft palate; identifying consonants that have a mixed place of articulation encompassing the palate and velum; signifying phonemes formed at a region between the middle and rear part of the mouth roof during articulation

Etymology: The word is a compound of "palato-", from Latin "palātum" (the roof of the mouth, a word that passed into English as "palate"), and "velar", which comes from Latin "vēlāris", formed from "vēlum" (a covering or curtain). The velum, or soft palate, is the fleshy rear part of the mouth roof, so the Latin term describes the tissue as if it were a hanging sheet. The Latin "vēlum" traces back to a Proto-Indo-European root that also gave rise to words for covering and clothing, and "velar" entered English as the name for sounds made against that soft rear section. "Palatovelar" joins it to the hard palate in front, which is why the term names sounds articulated across the boundary between the two regions. It is a plain technical coinage from these two parts, the hard palate and the velum, and it was built in the phonetics of the modern period rather than in classical times.