Back to Matrix [k] → [tʃ] Edit this Data

[tʃ]→[k]Certainty: 3/5Commonality: 2/5

Depalatalization Revelarization Germanic

Voiceless postalveolar affricate to Voiceless velar plosive

The shift from the palato-alveolar affricate [tʃ] back to the velar stop [k] is a rare process known as depalatalization or revelarization. Because the natural direction of sound change is from velars to palatals (palatalization), the reverse usually occurs only through specific external pressures like dialect contact, loanword influence, or hypercorrection.

Phonetic Effects

Depalatalization, Revelarization

Language Examples

Scots / Northern English Germanic

church [tʃɜːtʃ]→kirk [kɪrk]— OE 'cirice' [tʃ] survived in Standard English 'church'; 'kirk' reflects the competing Old Norse form 'kirkja' [k], which never underwent OE palatalization. Strictly a Norse borrowing rather than depalatalization.

Related Transformations

Reverse

More Germanic Shifts

[a] → [ã] — Assimilatory Nasalization [a] → [∅] — Elision [a] → [ʔ] — Glottalization [a] → [ə] — Vowel Reduction [æ] → [ɛ] — Vowel Raising

Sources & References

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