Inphonetics and phonology, a palatal stop is a type of consonantal sound, made with the body of the tongue in contact with the hard palate (hence palatal), held tightly enough to block the passage of air (hence a stop consonant). A stop consonant made with the tip of the tongue curled back against the palate is called a retroflex stop.
The term "palatal stop" is sometimes used imprecisely to refer to postalveolar affricates, which themselves come in numerous varieties, or to other acoustically similar sounds, such as palatalizedvelar stops.
The most common sound is the voiced nasal [ ɲ]. More generally, several kinds are distinguished: