Palatalization

Palatalization means pronouncing a sound nearer to the front of the mouth, making it more like a palatal consonant. In English, palatalization makes the t of "question" sound like ch, or the d of "soldier" sound like j. As these examples suggest, palatalization in English orthography is often indicated by a following i. Palatalization has played a major role in the history of the Romance, Slavic, and Indic languages.