Palatalization (assimilation 4-4)

 

Palatalization in English

Palatalization

Palatalization is a special case of assimilation. When alveolar consonants /t/, /d/, /s/, and /z/ precede the palatal semivowel /j/, they become the palatal sounds, /ʧ/, /ʤ/, /ʃ/, and /ʒ/ respectively. As in most cases of connected speech, palatalization mainly happens in fast speech. 

Palatalization: from alveolar to palatal due to /j/ or /r/ 

/t/+/j/=/ʧ/ 

These are example words and phrases: 

nature, natural, future, feature, creature, 

don’t you, 

let you, 

get you

/d/+/j/=/ʤ/ 

These are example words and phrases: 

gradual, graduation, individual, 

did you, 

had you, 

would you, 

could you, 

I followed your instruction 

/s/+/j/=/ʃ/

These are example words and phrases: 

 this year, 

pass your exam, 

guess your answer, 

Bless your heart!

/z/+/j/=/ʒ/

These are example words and phrases: 

casual, television, 

those years, these years, 

When’s your birthday?

When does your sister visit?

In consonant clusters with tr, dr, and sr, since /r/ is a palatal consonant, /r/ can change its preceding alveolar consonant into the corresponding palatal consonant.

            train → chrain

tree→ chree

drain → /ʤ/rain

Sri Lanka → /ʃ/ri Lanka

 

We should note that in both British and American English palatalization mainly occurs in colloquial, careless speech. In a formal setting (in academia or business), people tend not to use palatalized consonants in phrases.   

In this chapter we examined the salient pronunciation features of connected speech. Learning these features is necessary to understand fast conversational speech of natives. By improving our listening skills, we can improve our speaking skills.