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Palatalization

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I'm a little uncertain about our note on palatalization. I think we need to explain how c g have different pronunciations, and these are only sometimes marked. It's complicated because they represent many different phones, if you include the cluster sc: [k g ɣ j sk ʃ]. It's a mess to an uninitiated person, and hard to describe simply.

Maybe this table makes sense of the situation phonologically: — Eru·tuon 04:29, 23 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Palatal Velar
Voiceless Stop or affricate k
Voiced g
Fricative j ɣ

Brainstorming on what notes should look like:

In some modern texts, the letters c g are written with a dot above the letter, as ċ ġ, when they represent postalveolar or palatal sounds, and without the dot, as c g, when they represent velars. This is a modern convention, and the two pronunciations were not distinguished in Old English manuscripts.
Palatalized c or ċ represents [tʃ]. Doubled palatalized cc or ċċ represents [tːʃ].
The digraph cg or ċġ always represents the doubled postalveolar [dːʒ], as in eċġ [ˈedːʒ]. This developed from the doubled palatal [jj] or from [gj].
Palatalized g or ġ represents the palatal approximant [j] in most cases, but the postalveolar [dʒ] after a nasal. For doubled /jj/, see the note on ċġ.
  • ġeong [ˈjuŋɡ]
  • senġan [ˈsendʒɑn]
Unpalatalized g is pronounced as a velar fricative [ɣ] after a vowel or liquid /l r/, but as a velar stop [ɡ] in other cases, such as at the beginning of a word:
  • dagas [ˈdɑɣɑs] "days"
  • burgum [ˈburɣum] "castles" (DAT.SG)
  • gang [ɡɑŋɡ]
The cluster sc is usually palatalized and pronounced as postalveolar [ʃ]. Unpalatalized [sk] is rare.

I'll work these into the table soon. — Eru·tuon 21:55, 25 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Move discussion in progress

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There is a move discussion in progress on Help talk:IPA which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 16:17, 15 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]