Voiced alveolar lateral approximant | |
---|---|
l | |
IPA Number | 155 |
Encoding | |
Entity (decimal) | l |
Unicode (hex) | U+006C |
X-SAMPA | l |
Braille | ![]() |
Audio sample | |
The voiced alveolar lateral approximant is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents dental, alveolar, and postalveolar lateral approximants is ⟨l⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is l.
As a sonorant, lateral approximants are nearly always voiced. Voiceless lateral approximants, /l?/ are common in Sino-Tibetan languages, but uncommon elsewhere. In such cases, voicing typically starts about halfway through the hold of the consonant. No language is known to contrast such a sound with a voiceless alveolar lateral fricative [?].
In a number of languages, including most varieties of English, the phoneme /l/ becomes velarized ("dark l") in certain contexts. By contrast, the non-velarized form is the "clear l" (also known as: "light l"), which occurs before and between vowels in certain English standards.[1] Some languages have only clear l.[2] Others may not have a clear l at all, or have them only before front vowels (especially ).
Features of the voiced alveolar lateral approximant:
Languages may have clear apical or laminal alveolars, laminal denti-alveolars (such as French), or true dentals, which are uncommon. Laminal denti-alveolars tend to occur in Continental languages.[3] However, a true dental generally occurs allophonically before /?/ in languages that have it, as in English health.
Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Arabic | Gulf[4] | /leen | [l?e:n] | 'when' | Laminal denti-alveolar. See Arabic phonology |
Hungarian[5] | elem | ['?lm] | 'battery' | Laminal denti-alveolar. See Hungarian phonology | |
Italian[6][7][8] | molto | ['mol?:t?o] | 'much, a lot' | Laminal denti-alveolar. Allophone of /l/ before /t, d, s, z, t?s, d?z/.[6][7][8] See Italian phonology | |
Macedonian[9] | ?/levo | [l?e?vo?] | 'left' | Laminal denti-alveolar. See Macedonian phonology | |
Mapudungun[10] | ?afke? | [lfkën?] | 'sea, lake' | Interdental.[10] | |
Norwegian | Urban East[11] | anlegg | [²?n:lg] | 'plant (industrial)' | Allophone of /l/ after /n, t, d/.[11] See Norwegian phonology |
Spanish[12] | altar | [äl?'t?ä?] | 'altar' | Laminal denti-alveolar. Allophone of /l/ before /t/, /d/. See Spanish phonology | |
Swedish | Central Standard[13] | allt | [äl?t?] | 'everything' | Laminal denti-alveolar. See Swedish phonology |
Tamil[14] | ?/puli | [pul?i] | 'tiger' | See Tamil phonology | |
Uzbek[15] | [example needed] | Laminal denti-alveolar. Velarized between a non-front rounded vowel and a consonant or juncture phoneme.[15] | |||
Vietnamese | Hanoi[16] | l?a | [l] | 'fire' | See Vietnamese phonology |
Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Arabic | Standard[17] | /laa | [la:] | 'no' | See Arabic phonology |
Armenian | Eastern[18] | ?/lusin | 'moon' | ||
Catalan[19][20] | tela | ['tl?] | 'fabric' | Apical 'front alveolar'.[19][20] May also be velarized.[21] See Catalan phonology | |
Chuvash | ? | [?u'la] | ' city' | ||
Dutch | Standard[22] | laten | ['l?a:t] | 'to let' | Laminal. Some Standard Belgian speakers use the clear /l/ in all positions.[22] See Dutch phonology |
Some Eastern accents[23] | mal | [m?l?] | 'mold' | Laminal; realization of /l/ in all positions.[23] See Dutch phonology | |
English | New York[24] | let | [l?t] | 'let' | Varies between apical and laminal, with the latter being predominant.[24] |
Irish, Geordie[25] | tell | [t?l] | 'tell' | ||
Esperanto | luno | ['luno] | 'moon' | See Esperanto phonology | |
Filipino | luto | ['luto] | 'cook' | See Filipino phonology | |
Greek | ?/léksi | ['leksi] | 'word' | See Modern Greek phonology | |
Italian[6][26][27] | letto | ['l?t?:o] | 'bed' | Apical.[7] See Italian phonology | |
Japanese | ? / roku | [lo?k] | 'six' | Apical.[28] More commonly . See Japanese phonology | |
Kashubian[29] | [example needed] | ||||
Kyrgyz[30] | ??/köpölök | [køpø'løk] | 'butterfly' | Velarized in back vowel contexts. See Kyrgyz phonology | |
Korean | ? / il | [il] | 'one' or 'work' | Realized as alveolar tap ? in the beginning of a syllable. See Korean phonology. | |
Mapudungun[10] | elun | [ë'l?n] | 'to give' | ||
Nepali | [lämo] | 'long' | See Nepali phonology | ||
Odia[31] | ?? | [bl?] | 'good' | ||
Persian | ?/lama | [l?m?] | 'llama' | See Persian phonology | |
Polish[32] | pole | 'field' | Contrasts with /?/ for a small number of speakers; when it does, it is always palatalized [l?]. See Polish phonology | ||
Romanian[33] | alun? | [ä'lun] | 'hazelnut' | Apical. See Romanian phonology | |
Scottish Gaelic[34] | maoil | [m?:l] | 'headland' | Contrasts with // and /?/. See Scottish Gaelic phonology | |
Slovak[35] | m?kvy | 'silent' | Syllabic form can be long or short. See Slovak phonology | ||
Slovene[36] | letalo | [l?'t?à:l?] | 'airplane' | See Slovene phonology | |
Spanish[37] | hablar | [ä'lä?] | 'to speak' | See Spanish phonology | |
Welsh | diafol | [djav?l] | 'devil' | See Welsh phonology | |
Ukrainian[38] | ??/oblichchya | [o'bl?t:?] | 'face' | Contrasts with palatalized form. See Ukrainian phonology |
Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Igbo | Standard[39] | lì | [l?ì] | 'bury' | |
Italian[7] | il cervo | [il 'trvo] | 'the deer' | Palatalized laminal; allophone of /l/ before /?, t, d/.[7] See Italian phonology | |
Malayalam | ? | [pul?i] | 'tiger' | See Malayalam | |
Turkish[40][41] | lale | 'tulip' | Palatalized; contrasts with a velarized dental lateral .[40][41] See Turkish phonology | ||
Zapotec | Tilquiapan[42] | lan | [l?an] | 'soot' |
Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Faroese[43] | linur | ['li:n] | 'soft' | Varies between dental and alveolar in initial position, whereas the postvocalic /l/ may be postalveolar, especially after back vowels.[43] See Faroese phonology | ||
French[44] | il | [il] | 'he' | Varies between laminal denti-alveolar and apical alveolar, with the latter being predominant.[44] See French phonology | ||
German | Standard[45] | Liebe | ['li:b?] | 'love' | Varies between denti-alveolar, laminal alveolar and apical alveolar.[45] | |
Norwegian | Urban East[46] | liv | [li:?] | 'life' | In process of changing from laminal denti-alveolar to apical alveolar, but the laminal denti-alveolar is still possible in some environments, and is obligatory after /n, t, d/.[46] See Norwegian phonology | |
Portuguese | Most Brazilian dialects,[47][48][49] some EP speakers[50] | lero-lero | ['l 'l] | 'runaround'[51] | Clear, dental to sometimes alveolar.[52] Only occurs in syllable onset, with l-vocalization widely occurring in coda. Sometimes found before front vowels only in the European variety. See Portuguese phonology. | |
Lituânia | 'Lithuania' |
Velarized L | |
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l? | |
l? | |
? | |
IPA Number | 209 |
Encoding | |
Entity (decimal) | lˠ |
Unicode (hex) | U+006C U+02E0 |
X-SAMPA | 5 or l_G or l_?\ |
Audio sample | |
The velarized alveolar lateral approximant (a.k.a. dark l) is a type of consonantal sound used in some languages. It is an alveolar, denti-alveolar, or dental lateral approximant, with a secondary articulation of velarization or pharyngealization. The regular symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represent this sound are ⟨l?⟩ (for a velarized lateral) and ⟨l?⟩ (for a pharyngealized lateral), though the dedicated letter ⟨?⟩, which covers both velarization and pharyngealization, is perhaps more common. The last symbol should never be confused with ⟨?⟩, which represents the voiceless alveolar lateral fricative. However, some scholars use that symbol to represent the velarized alveolar lateral approximant anyway[53] - such usage is considered non-standard.
If the sound is dental or denti-alveolar, one could use a dental diacritic to indicate so: ⟨l⟩, ⟨l⟩, ⟨⟩.
Velarization and pharyngealization are generally associated with more dental articulations of coronal consonants, so dark l tends to be dental or denti-alveolar. Clear (non-velarized) l tends to be retracted to an alveolar position.[54]
The term dark l is often synonymous with hard l, especially in Slavic languages. (Cf. Hard consonants)
Features of the dark l:
Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Bashkir | ??/qala | 'city' | Velarized dental lateral; occurs in back vowel contexts. | ||
Belarusian[55] | ?/belarus' | [b?ä'ru?] | 'Belarus' | Laminal denti-alveolar; contrasts with palatalized form. See Belarusian phonology | |
Catalan[21][56] | altres | ['ats?] | 'others' | Laminal denti-alveolar. Allophone of /l/ before /t, d/.[56] See Catalan phonology | |
Classical Armenian[21][56] | ?/?ek | [k] | 'rudder' | ||
Icelandic[57] | sigldi | [s?t] | 'sailed' | Laminal denti-alveolar; rare. See Icelandic phonology | |
Kashubian | Older southeastern speakers[29] | [example needed] | Laminal denti-alveolar; realized as by other speakers.[29] | ||
Lithuanian[58] | labas | ['ä:b?s?] | 'hi' | Laminal denti-alveolar; contrasts with palatalized form. See Lithuanian phonology | |
Macedonian[59] | ? luk |
[uk] | 'garlic' | Laminal denti-alveolar. Present only before back vowels (/u, o, a/) and syllable-finally. See Macedonian phonology | |
Norwegian | Urban East[58][11] | tale | ['t:] | 'speech' | Laminal denti-alveolar. Allophone of /l/ after /?, o:, ?, ?:/, and sometimes also after /u, u:/.[11] However, according to Endresen (1990), this allophone is not velarized.[60] See Norwegian phonology |
Polish | Eastern dialects[32] | ?apa | ['äpä] | 'paw' | Laminal denti-alveolar. Corresponds to /w/ in standard Polish. See Polish phonology |
Russian[61] | ?/malyy | ['mj] | 'small' | Pharyngealized laminal denti-alveolar. See Russian phonology | |
Scottish Gaelic[62] | Mallaig | ['mäæk?] | 'Mallaig' | Contrasts with /l/ and /?/. See Scottish Gaelic phonology | |
Turkish[40][41] | lala | [ä'ä] | 'servant' | Laminal denti-alveolar; contrasts with a palatalized postalveolar lateral .[40][41] See Turkish phonology |
Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Afrikaans | Standard[63][64] | tafel | ['t?:f] | 'table' | Velarized in all positions, especially non-prevocalically.[63][64] See Afrikaans phonology |
Albanian | Standard | llullë | ['?u] | 'smoking pipe' | |
Arabic | Standard[65] | ? 'Allah | [':h] | 'God' | Also transcribed as ⟨l?⟩. Many accents and dialects lack the sound and instead pronounce [l]. See Arabic phonology |
Catalan[21] | Eastern dialects | cel·la | ['s:?] | 'cell' | Apical. Can be always dark in many dialects. See Catalan phonology |
Western dialects | alt | [a?(t)] | 'tall' | ||
Dutch | Standard[66] | mallen | ['m?] | 'molds' | Laminal; pharyngealized in northern accents, velarized or post-palatalised in southern accents. It is an allophone of /l/ before consonants and pauses, and also prevocalically when after the open back vowels /?, ?/. Many northern speakers realize the final /l/ as a strongly pharyngealised vocoid [], whereas some Standard Belgian speakers use the clear /l/ in all positions.[66] See Dutch phonology |
Some Netherlandic accents[23] | laten | ['a:t] | 'to let' | Pharyngealized laminal; realization of /l/ in all positions.[23] See Dutch phonology | |
English[67] | Australian | feel | 'feel' | Most often apical; can be always dark in North America, Australia and New Zealand. See Australian English phonology and English phonology | |
Canadian | |||||
Dublin | |||||
General American | |||||
New Zealand | |||||
Received Pronunciation | |||||
South African | |||||
Scottish | loch | [x] | 'loch' | Can be always dark except in some borrowings from Scottish Gaelic | |
Greek | Northern dialects[68] | bálla | ['ba?a] | 'ball' | Allophone of /l/ before /a o u/. See Modern Greek phonology |
Kurdish (Sorani) | gâlta | [g?:?'t?a:] | 'joke' | See Kurdish phonology | |
Romanian | Bessarabian dialect[69] | cal | [ka?] | 'horse' | Corresponds to non-velarized l[in which environments?] in standard Romanian. See Romanian phonology |
Serbo-Croatian[70] | ? / lak | [?â?k] | 'easy' | Apical; may be syllabic; contrasts with . See Serbo-Croatian phonology | |
Uzbek[15] | [example needed] | Apical; between a non-front rounded vowel and a consonant or juncture phoneme. Non-velarized denti-alveolar elsewhere.[15] |
Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Portuguese | European[71] | mil | [mi] | 'thousand' | Dental and strongly velarized in all environments for most speakers, though less so before front vowels.[72][50] |
Older and conservative Brazilian[73][74][75][76] | álcool | ['äko] | 'alcohol, ethanol' | When [l? ~ l? ~ l? ~ l?],[77] most often dental. Coda is now vocalized to [u? ~ ] in most of Brazil (as in EP in rural parts of Alto Minho and Madeira).[78] Stigmatized realizations such as [? ~ ? ~ ?], the /?/ range, and even [?] (zero) are some other coda allophones typical of Brazil.[79] See Portuguese phonology |
realization of /l/ is similar to that of RP: a 'clear' or non-velarized /l/ = [l] pre-vocalically and intervocalically; and a 'dark' or velarized /l/ = [?] pre-consonantally and pre-pausally
the light /l/ used in all environments in [standard] German (e.g., Licht "light," viel "much, many") or in French (e.g., lit "bed", île "island")