1. Plural of palatalization; linguistic processes in which a consonant sound shifts toward or becomes a palatal sound (pronounced with the tongue raised toward the hard palate).
Usage: linguistics; phonology

Examples

• The palatalizations that occurred in Romance languages transformed Latin consonants over centuries.
• Linguists study palatalizations to understand how languages evolve phonetically.
• In Russian, palatalizations of consonants before front vowels are a key feature of the phonological system.
• Historical palatalizations in English affected the pronunciation of words like 'nature' and 'picture'.
• The comparative study of palatalizations across languages reveals common patterns in sound change.