Quote Originally Posted by Alex103 View Post
I heard some Russians pronunciating Эти not palatalized.
Isn't there any exception for palatalizing rule?
The only way to pronounce "эти" with a hard "т" would be "этъи" and that is a very non-natural way. Try doing it yourself, pronounce something like "team" with a hard "t". You'll get something like "t yeeem". The palatalization rules are not something made up by the evil Russians just to make their own life more difficult, but just a natural way of speaking. In the normal speech a tongue is trying to move as little as possible, and the the consonants follow the vowels.