[ʎ]→[lʲ]Certainty: 3/5Commonality: 3/5
Voiced palatal lateral approximant to Palatalized voiced alveolar lateral approximant
The transformation from a voiced palatal lateral approximant (/ʎ/) to a palatalized voiced alveolar lateral approximant (/lʲ/) represents a shift in the primary place of articulation. The tongue contact moves from the hard palate to the alveolar ridge, while a secondary palatalization — a raising of the tongue body towards the palate — is retained. Because /ʎ/ is articulatorily and perceptually unstable, it frequently varies with [lʲ]; this can be understood as a partial depalatalization of the primary articulation.
Phonetic Effects
Depalatalization, Palatalization
Language Examples
[ʎ]→[lʲ]— In Brazilian Portuguese the voiced palatal lateral approximant [ʎ] is articulatorily unstable and varies with a palatalized alveolar lateral [lʲ]; articulatory studies treat them as closely related realizations of the same lateral category.
Related Transformations
More Romance Shifts
Sources & References
- Charles, S., & Lulich, S. M. (2019). Articulatory-acoustic relations in the production of alveolar and palatal lateral sounds in Brazilian Portuguese. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 145(6), 3269.
- Howson, P. J., Moisik, S. R., & Żygis, M. (2022). Lateral vocalization in Brazilian Portuguese. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 152(1), 281.
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