Editing Palatalization (phonetics) (section)

{{Short description|Phonetic feature}}
{{about|the phonetic feature|the sound change|Palatalization (sound change)}}
{{More citations needed|date=May 2021}}{{Infobox IPA
| above      = Palatalized
| ipa symbol = ◌ʲ
| ipa number = 421
| decimal1   = 690
}}
In [[phonetics]], '''palatalization''' ({{IPAc-en|ˌ|p|æ|l|ə|t|ə|l|aɪ|ˈ|z|eɪ|ʃ|ən|audio=LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-palatalization.wav}}, {{IPAc-en|USalso|-|l|ɪ|-}}) or '''palatization''' is a way of pronouncing a consonant in which part of the tongue is moved close to the [[hard palate]]. Consonants pronounced this way are said to be '''palatalized''' and are transcribed in the [[International Phonetic Alphabet]] by affixing a superscript ''j'' ⟨ʲ⟩ to the base consonant. Palatalization is not [[Phonemic contrast|phonemic]] in English, but it is in Slavic languages such as [[Russian language|Russian]] and [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]], Finnic languages such as [[Estonian language|Estonian]], [[Karelian language|Karelian]], and [[Võro language|Võro]], and other languages such as [[Irish language|Irish]], [[Marshallese language|Marshallese]], [[Kashmiri language|Kashmiri]], and [[Japanese language|Japanese]].