antepalatal
|an-te-pal-a-tal|
/ˌæntiˈpælətəl/
in front of the palate
Etymology
'antepalatal' originates from Latin prefix 'ante-' meaning 'before' combined with 'palatal' from Latin 'palatum' meaning 'palate'.
'palatal' came into English via Modern Latin 'palatālis' (from Latin 'palatum'), and the compound 'antepalatal' was formed in modern phonetic/linguistic terminology by combining the Latin prefix 'ante-' with 'palatal'.
Initially the elements literally meant 'before the palate'; over time the compound came to be used in phonetics to denote sounds articulated just in front of the hard palate.
Meanings by Part of Speech
Adjective 1
located just in front of the hard palate; in phonetics, describing a place of articulation immediately anterior to the palate (i.e., produced with the tongue contacting or approaching the area just before the hard palate).
An antepalatal consonant is articulated with the tongue contacting the area just before the hard palate.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Last updated: 2025/08/22 16:17