Soft consonants, denoted by a superscript " j ", } }, are pronounced with the body of the tongue raised toward the hard palate, like the articulation of the " y " sound in " yes " . are always soft, whereas are always hard.
22.
The soft consonant letters, * 3 C ? G, are found in front vowel contexts; the hard,- . 5 6 7 8 9 : B, in back vowel contexts; and the neutral, ( ~ + , ? / 0 1 2 ? 4 A D E F, in either.
23.
However, there exists a subset of the hard consonants, " c, dz, sz, | / rz, cz, d | ", which often derive from historical palatalizations ( for example, " rz " usually represents a historical palatalized " r " ), and which behave like the soft consonants in some respects ( for example, they normally take " e " in the nominative plural ).
