Palatal consonant

Consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the roof of the mouth Palatals are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth). Consonants with the tip of the tongue curled back against the palate are called retroflex. Ambiguity of terminology The term palatal is commonly used more loosely for postalveolar consonants that are laminal, palatalized, or both, if there are no true palatals that contrast with them (that is, often referring to alveolo-palatal consonants). This is especially the case with the IPA letters ⟨ɲ⟩ and ⟨ʎ⟩, which would often be more accurately transcribed as ⟨n̠ʲ⟩ and ⟨l̠ʲ⟩. Palato-alveolar consonants such as ⟨ʃ⟩ and ⟨ʒ⟩ are also frequently called just palatal. Palatal consonants are occasionally called domal or cacuminal (/kəˈkjuːmɪnəl/ ⓘ), though these terms are usually restricted to retroflex consonants (apico-domal, apico-prepalatal, apico-palatal, subapico-prepalatal, or subapico-palatal), with (alveolo-)palatal restricted to laminal (lamino-domal, lamino-prepalatal, or lamino-palatal) or dorsal (dorso-prepalatal or dorso