Articulatory, positional and contextual characteristics of palatal consonants: Evidence from Majorcan Catalan

Linguopalatal contact data for Majorcan Catalan reveal that the palatal consonants [c] (oral), [ɲ] (nasal) and [ʎ] (lateral) may exhibit two places of articulation, i.e., alveolopalatal and palatal proper, depending not only on vowel context but on position and speaker as well. In this Catalan dialect, [ɲ] and [ʎ] have phonological status while [c] is an allophone of /k/ and is articulated at a fronter location than front /k/ in languages such as English. Several consonant-dependent differences appear to be of universal validity, i.e., a trend for [ɲ] and [ʎ] to exhibit a more anterior closure location than [c] (perhaps due to manner requirements) or else for [c] and [ɲ] to share a similar place of articulation (presumably for the sake of articulatory economy), and more stability for closures formed at the alveolopalatal zone than at the mediopalate. The three palatal consonants exhibit more overall contact, fronting and duration but also more coarticulation utterance initially than utterance finally (and even intervocalically) thus suggesting that they may blend with the adjacent vowel rather than resisting its influence in the former position while failing to undergo substantial articulatory reduction in the latter.