Irish

Secondary Articulations: Velarization and palatalization in Irish Gaelic

Irish has an extensive series of consonants contrasting in terms of velarization vs. palatalization.


bˠi ("yellow")	bʲi ("be")
fˠi ("under")	fʲi ("weaving")
n̪ˠi ("nine")	n̠ʲih ("wash")

There is a third alveolar nasal category in non-initial position. For the lateral this can be illustrated in initial position:

l̪ˠe
("day")

l̠ʲej
("read")

lej
("with her")

For the plosives in the alveolar articulatory region it is particularly noticeable that the velarized/irish_palatalized contrast involves more than just secondary articulation, e.g also place of articulation, affrication:

t̪ˠid̠ʲe
("tide")

t̠ʲi
("about to")

Irish also contrasts velar and palatal plosives in terms of primary place of articulation, but they can also be seen as forming part of this velarized/irish_palatalized series:

kil̪ˠ
("thin", masc.)

cial̪ˠ
("sense")

Audio Source:
Illustrations of the IPA.