What is the linguistic term for the palatalising secondary articulation that distinguishes 'hard' from 'soft' consonants, a fundamental feature of the phonological system?

• A Palatalisation ✓
• B Velarisation
• C Aspiration
• D Labialisation

Most consonants form hard-soft pairs (e.g. [t] vs [tʲ]), distinguished by whether the tongue body is raised toward the hard palate; this contrast is phonemic and affects vowel quality.