Effect On Preceding Consonant
In the history of many languages, for example French and Japanese, front vowels have altered preceding velar or alveolar consonants, bringing their place of articulation towards palatal or postalveolar. This change can be allophonic variation, or it can have become phonemic.
This historical palatalization is reflected in the orthographies of several European languages, including the "c" and "g" of almost all Romance languages, the "k" and "g" in Norwegian, Swedish and Icelandic, and the "κ", "γ" and "χ" in Greek. English follows the French pattern, but without as much regularity. However, for native or early borrowed words affected by palatalization, English has generally altered the spelling after the pronunciation (Examples include cheap, church, cheese, churn from *k, and yell, yarn, yearn, yeast from *ɡ.)
| Before back vowel: hard | Before front vowel: soft | |
|---|---|---|
| English "C" | call | cell |
| English "G" | gall | gel |
| French "C" | calque | cela |
| French "G" | gare | gel |
| Italian "C" | cara | ciao |
| Italian "G" | gallo | genere |
| Italian "SC" | scala | scena |
| Swedish "K" | karta | kär |
| Swedish "G" | god | göra |
| Swedish "SK" | skal | skäl |
Read more about this topic: Front Vowel
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