In
linguistics, a "palatal glide" is the term for the
speech sound represented by the letter "
y" in the
English alphabet, and the letter [j] in the
phonetic transcription. A palatal glide is produced by holding the tongue high in the mouth, forcing air along the
palate.
Palatal glides are found, for example, in the first syllable of "yes" and the last syllable of "boy."