Palatalization

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Palatalization is a common phenomenon in the phonological development of all Romance languages, from Latin intervocalic CT, L, and initial PL, CL, F, C. In technical terms it is the transformation of velar consonants into either palatal or palato-alveolar consonants. The principal behaviours of Castilian, Portuguese, French and Italian are outlined in  the table below, with palatalized phonemes (or those seriously heading that way) represented in italics, and alternatives underlined (okay, so igli ain't just a phoneme, it's got an i on either side, but let's not get over-pedantic about this stuff):

LATIN	CASTILIAN	PORTUGUESE	FRENCH	ITALIAN
FACTU	hecho	feito	fait	fatto
LACTE	leche	leite	lait	latte
NOCTE	noche	noite	nuit	notte
OCTO	ocho	oito	huit	otto
CONSILIU	consejo	conselho	conseil	consiglio
FILIA	hija	filha	fille	figlia
FOLIA	hoja	folha	feuille	foglia
PALEA	paja	palha	paille	paglia
PETRA	piedra	pedra	pierre	pietra
PEDE	pie	pé	pied	piede
TENET	tiene	tem	tient	tiene
PLAGA	llaga	chaga	plaie	piaga
PLENU	lleno	cheio	plein	pieno
CLAVE	llave	chave	clef	chiave
FLAMMA	llama	chama	flamme	fiamma
FACERE	hacer	fazer	faire	fare
FENDERE	hender	fender	fendre	fendere
FERIRE	herir	ferir	férir	ferire
FORMICA	hormiga	formiga	fourmi	formica
CABALLU	caballo	cavalo	cheval	cavallo
CAELUM	cielo	céu	ciel	cielo
CANEM	-	cão	chien	cane
CAPU	cabo	cabo	chef	capo
CAMISA	camisa	camisa	chemise	camicia
CARU	caro	caro	cher	caro

General tendencies, then, are pretty much self-evident from each languages list. In Italian, for examples,l becomes i (eg piano from Latin PLANUM, to cite an example not mentioned above); the M in PLANUM and the EM rather than IS in CANEM, by the way, are there because Romance nouns are normally derived from Latins accusative case. So, in effect we should be writing CLAVEM for CLAVE etc. Unless you're dealing specifically with case-related issues, however, the nominative is as good as the accusative for most purposes in historical phonology.

The k phoneme in CAELUM is retained before i or e in Sardinian (kelu), but becomes a sibilant or a ceta in Spanish, a sibilant in French (having passed through [ts] in Old French) and Portuguese, and palatalizes only in Italian [tshjelo]; the Rumanian for sky, incidentally, is  shortened to cel. The voiced phoneme g is unusual in that it does not always follow a parallel pattern to its unvoiced sister k; the initial development of both phonemes probably did run parallel, however ( g > g'> d' and k > k'> t').

You'll have noticed (hopefully!) that French palatalizes Latin L when the resultant Gallic phoneme is followed be an e. This is not so in Catalan, for example where all such Ls in Latin are palatalized, even in initial position (eg llibre - book). The general tendency for L in Latin, though is mulier (Latin) - mujer (Spanish) - mulher (Portuguese) and moglie (Italian). In Spanish early yod development was absorbed into the palatalized L when it was still a ĝ: MULIĔRE > mogier [moĝiér] (Οld Spanish) > mujer [muxér] (modern Spanish). Compare also moiller (Old French), molher (Provençal), muller [muλér] (Catalan), muzere (Sardinian), muiere (Romanian).

L is invariably pronounced thinly in French, and for this reason often disappeared completely to become a diphthong:

eg SALTARE > sautare (ow)> sauter (o)

The German l is pronounced with the tongue curled towards the palate, just behind the teeth; in English l can be either thin or thick. In Southern English it is normally thin before a vowel and thick at the end of a word, or before a consonant. Final l in Cockney is usually pronounced ł, and is often reduced to a yod followed by a vowel, but this is digression. If you want to trace the letter l's journey through European history, we suggest you return to our Linguistics department's main menu:

Palatalization itself is by no means an exclusively Romance phenomenon, and is widespread in the evolution of Germanic tongues. eg Scottish [kεrk] > English [tshə:tsh] (church).