Dorsal consonants are consonants articulated with the back of the tongue (the dorsum). They include the uvular, velar and, in some cases, alveolo-palatal and palatal consonants. They contrast with coronal consonants, articulated with the flexible front of the tongue, and laryngeal consonants, articulated in the pharyngeal cavity.
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Palatal consonant in the context of Postalveolar consonant
Postalveolar (post-alveolar) consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the back of the alveolar ridge. Articulation is farther back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but not as far back as the hard palate, the place of articulation for palatal consonants. Examples of postalveolar consonants are the English palato-alveolar consonants [ʃ] [tʃ] [ʒ] [dʒ], as in the words "ship", "'chill", "vision", and "jump", respectively.
There are many types of postalveolar sounds—especially among the sibilants. The three primary types are palato-alveolar (such as [ʃ ʒ], weakly palatalized; also alveopalatal), alveolo-palatal (such as [ɕ ʑ], strongly palatalized), and retroflex (such as [ʂ ʐ], unpalatalized). The palato-alveolar and alveolo-palatal subtypes are commonly counted as "palatals" in phonology since they rarely contrast with true palatal consonants.
Palatal consonant in the context of Velar consonant
Velar consonants are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth (also known as the "velum").
Since the velar region of the roof of the mouth is relatively extensive and the movements of the dorsumare not very precise, velars easily undergo assimilation, shifting their articulation back or to the frontdepending on the quality of adjacent vowels. They often become automatically fronted, that is partly or completely palatal before a following front vowel, and retracted, that is partly or completely uvular before back vowels.
Palatal consonant in the context of Kalanga language
Kalanga, or TjiKalanga (in Zimbabwe), is a Bantu language spoken by the Kalanga people in Botswana and Zimbabwe which belongs to the Shonic (Shona-Nyai) branch of the Bantu languages, within the Niger-Congo languages. It has an extensive phoneme inventory, which includes palatalised, velarised, aspirated and breathy-voiced consonants, as well as whistled sibilants.
Kalanga is recognized as an official language by the Zimbabwean Constitution of 2013 and is taught in schools in areas where its speakers predominate. The iKalanga language is closely related to the Nambya, TshiVenda, and KheLobedu languages of Zimbabwe and South Africa.