Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth). Consonants with the tip of the tongue curled back against the palate are called retroflex. The most common type of palatal consonant is the extremely common approximant, which ranks as overall, among the ten most common sounds in the world's languages. The nasal is also common, occurring in around 35 percent of the world's languages, in most of whic… (More on Palatal)