Sub-articulatory interactions in palatalization processes

Abstract

Palatalization is a widespread phenomenon across the world’s languages and is typically conceived articulatorily as a tongue body raising and/or fronting gesture that is spread from high and/or front vowels to neighboring consonants. Oddly, palatalization of labial consonants (which allow the greatest degree of gestural overlap with neighboring high and/or front vowels) is typologically least common, suggesting that palatalization processes do not primarily result from gestural overlap, but instead arise from the resolution of incompatible lingual “sub-articulations.” In particular, articulatory data from Polish and Russian palatalized consonants point to a critical role for tongue root interactions with tongue blade and dorsum gestures. The products of these resolved sub-articulatory interactions can become lexicalized and reconfigured by later generations of language-learners in response to the interaction of phonological pressure to maintain contrasts and new palatalization processes. The etymological history of the Proto-Slavic stems *menk- and *ment- illustrates these interactions. The velar consonant in *menk- was palatalized by a following high, front vowel to a “soft” posterior affricate. Subsequently, the coronal consonant in *ment- was palatalized as well (Modern Polish mącić). To maintain the contrast between the sound categories, the palatalized velar was reconfigured as a post-alveolar “hard” consonant (męczyć).