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26: Why do C and G come in hard and soft versions? Palatalization
🕑 Added 2018-11-16 00:14:17 +0000 UTC A letter stands for a sound. Or at least, it’s supposed to. Most of the time. Unless it’s C or G, which each stand for two different sounds in a whole bunch of languages. C can be soft, as in circus or acacia, or hard, as in the other C in circus or acacia. G can be hard, as in gif, or soft, as in gif.Why can C and G be hard or soft? And why don’t other letters come in hard and soft versions?
In this episode of the podcast that’s enthusiastic about linguistics, your hosts Lauren Gawne and Gretchen McCulloch get enthusiastic about the group of sounds that are pronounced with the back part of the roof of your mouth, aka the palate. When one sound in a word is produced at the palate, it tends to pull neighbouring sounds towards the palate as well, and this palatal attraction explains so many weird mismatches of sound and spelling. Why can C and G be hard and soft? Why do T and D sometimes get different pronunciations as well, as in nation and didja? Why are Irish and Scottish Gaelic names spelled that way? Why is it so hard to spell the clipped forms of “usual” and “casual”? How are cheese and cacio e pepe and queso and Käse all related?
This is also our anniversary episode! Whether you’ve been with us for the whole two years or you’ve joined us more recently, we’re glad you’re here. Thank you to everyone who has helped bring the show to more language fans in honour of our anniversary. There’s still a bit of time to get your name on the special thank you post and help more people get a fun language thing in their ears by recommending Lingthusiasm on social media before the end of the month.
For links to everything mentioned in this episode visit https://lingthusiasm.com/post/180153994181/lingthusiasm-episode-26-why-do-c-and-g-come-in
Comments
Lingthusiasm
Yeah, for English there are fewer consonants that are affected by palatalization (although I was definitely taught about hard g/c and soft g/c) but there seem to be more of these for Russian -- this is what I found on googling <a href="https://therussianblog.wordpress.com/2012/02/18/palatalization-in-russian/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://therussianblog.wordpress.com/2012/02/18/palatalization-in-russian/</a>
Maggie+Al
This episode is really interesting to me as a Russian-speaker who grew up in Australia (with Russian-language Saturday school), because I was taught all of the Russian consonants in pairs as hard/soft versions of each other - p & b, k & g, etc. It's so interesting that this concept is part of elementary school Russian-language education whereas Anglophone countries seem to focus more on grammar? Although I could be misremembering this. - Maggie
Lingthusiasm
All of the above, really! Plus the entropy of any natural system. Glad you enjoyed the episode!
Hi! I really enjoyed this episode and plan to listen to it again. I'm fascinated by the concept of the evolution of languages. What is the engine that drives language evolution? The need to express new thoughts as the human situation evolves and changes, right? Different groups of people bumping up against each other. I also think there is something innate in humans that make us want change the way we speak, as part of each generation differentiating itself from the previous generation. (I can remember being at a business meeting many years ago in Canada and hearing, for the first time, someone describe an idea as being "spot on" and how I found myself using the same term the following day.)
