ABSTRACT
Irish, and the Q-Celtic languages, have a well-known and well-researched system of palatal and non-palatal consonants which set it off from the remaining Celtic languages. There are significant parallels between Irish and the East Slavic languages, notably Russian. The precise manifestation of palatalisation is a prime concern in this chapter and the manner in which phonological distinctions are realised in the phonetics of both languages forms the focus. In addition, the diachronic development of palatal elements and the interrelationship of the sound system and sound realisations has been scrutinised to reach linguistically significant generalisations about languages with palatal/non-palatal contrasts.
