This paper reexamines the essence and scope of the concepts of palatality and palatalization based on experimental phonetic data from Siberian languages of diverse genetic and typological backgrounds, supplemented by cross-linguistic data, including Russian. The study demonstrates that the fundamental difference between these categories lies in the presence of a secondary, additional focus of noise formation in palatalized settings, created by the forward-upward movement of the mid-lingual surface. In contrast, palatal patterns lack this additional mid-palatal focus. Frontlingual articulations, categorized by tongue configuration into dorsal and non-dorsal (apical, cacuminal, and retroflex) varieties, generate two distinct strategies for producing softness (mollisness): strong dorsal configurations implement palatality, whereas non-dorsal configurations implement palatalization. Settings traditionally classified as strongly dorsal frontlingual palatalized actually function as front-mid-lingual articulations produced by a unified, monolithic organ. Lacking a secondary mid-palatal focus, they should be classified as palatal rather than palatalized entities. Similarly, soft guttural articulations divide into two distinct series: mid-interlingual articulations realize palatality, while interlingual, inter-back-lingual, and back-lingual patterns produce a weak softening effect by altering and expanding the volume of the posterior vocal tract resonator.
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