Voiced dental and alveolar lateral approximants are a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. It is familiar to English-speakers as the "l" sound in "lift". The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents them is .

As a sonorant, lateral approximants are nearly always voiced. Voiceless lateral approximants, 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 becomes velarized ("dark l") in certain contexts. By contrast, the non-velarized form is the "clear l" (also called "light l"), which occurs before and between vowels in certain English standards. Some languages have only clear l. Others may not have a clear l at all, or have it only before front vowels (especially ).

Features

Features of voiced alveolar lateral approximants:

  • There are four specific place of articulation variants of :
  • Dental, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue at the upper teeth, termed respectively apical and laminal.
  • Denti-alveolar, which means it is articulated with the blade of the tongue at the alveolar ridge, and the tip of the tongue behind upper teeth.
  • Alveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue at the alveolar ridge, termed respectively apical and laminal.
  • Postalveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue behind the alveolar ridge, termed respectively apical and laminal.

Occurrence

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 European languages. However, a true dental generally occurs allophonically before in languages that have it, as in English health.

Coronal laterals are often colored by surrounding vowels in their articulation, as the main portion of the tongue body remains free. If necessary, this coloring can be transcribed with superscript vowels, such as .

Dental or denti-alveolar

{| class="wikitable"

!colspan=2| Language

! Word

! IPA

! Meaning

! Notes

|-

| Arabic

| Gulf

| /

|align=center|

| 'when'

| Laminal denti-alveolar. See Arabic phonology

|-

| rowspan="2" |Chinese

|Cantonese

| /

|align=center|[l̪an˨˩]

| rowspan="2" |'orchid'

|

|-

|Mandarin

|/

|align=center|[l̪an˨˥]

|

|-

|colspan=2| Hungarian

|

|align=center|

| 'battery'

| Laminal denti-alveolar. See Hungarian phonology

|-

|colspan=2| Italian

|

|align=center|

| 'much, a lot'

| Laminal denti-alveolar. Allophone of before . See Italian phonology

|-

|colspan=2| Macedonian

| /

|align=center|

| 'left'

| Laminal denti-alveolar. See Macedonian phonology

|-

|colspan=2| Mapudungun

|

|align=center|

| 'sea, lake'

| Interdental.

|-

| Norwegian

| Urban East

|

|

| 'plant (industrial)'

| Allophone of after . See Norwegian phonology

|-

|colspan=2|Spanish

|

|align=center|

| 'altar'

| Laminal denti-alveolar. Allophone of before . See Spanish phonology

|-

| Swedish

| Central Standard

|

|align=center|

| 'everything'

| Laminal denti-alveolar. See Swedish phonology

|-

|colspan=2| Uzbek

|

|align=center|

| 'future'

| Laminal denti-alveolar. Velarized between a non-front rounded vowel and a consonant or juncture phoneme.

|-

| Vietnamese

| Hanoi

|

|align=center|

| 'fire'

| See Vietnamese phonology

|}

Alveolar

{| class="wikitable"

!colspan=2| Language

! Word

! IPA

! Meaning

! Notes

|-

| Arabic

| Standard

| /

|align=center|

| 'no'

| See Arabic phonology

|-

| Armenian

| Eastern

| /

|align=center|

| 'moon'

|

|-

| colspan=2 | Assyrian

| /

|align=center|

| 'bread'

|

|-

| colspan="2" |Bengali

|

| align="center" |

|'long'

|See Bengali phonology

|-

| rowspan="2" | Catalan

| Eastern

| rowspan="2" |

| align=center |

| rowspan="2" | 'fabric'

| rowspan="2" | Apical 'front alveolar'.

| tell

|align=center|

| 'to tell'

|

|-

| colspan="2" | Esperanto

|

| align=center |

| 'moon'

| See Esperanto phonology

|-

| colspan="2" | Filipino

|

| align=center |

| 'to cook'

| See Filipino phonology

|-

| colspan="2" rowspan="2" |Georgian

|ლექსი/leksi

| align=center |

| 'verse/poetry'

| rowspan="2" |See Georgian phonology

|-

|რბილი/rbili

| align=center |

| 'soft'

|-

| colspan=2|Greek

| /

| align=center |

| 'word'

| See Modern Greek phonology

|-

| colspan=2|Hebrew

|/

| align=center|

|'night'

|See Modern Hebrew phonology.

|-

|colspan=2| Italian

|

|align=center|

| 'bed'

| Apical. See Italian phonology

|-

|colspan=2| Japanese

| /

|align=center|

| 'six'

| Apical. More commonly . See Japanese phonology

|-

|colspan=2| Kashubian

|

|

|

|

|-

|colspan="2" | Khmer

| /

|align=center|

| 'music'

| See Khmer phonology

|-

|colspan=2| Korean

| /

|align=center|

| 'one' or 'work'

| Realized as alveolar tap ɾ in the beginning of a syllable. See Korean phonology.

|-

|colspan=2| Kyrgyz

| /

|align=center|

| 'butterfly'

| Velarized in back vowel contexts. See Kyrgyz phonology

|-

| colspan="2" |Laghu

|

|

|'Laghu language'

|

|-

|Laghuu

|Nậm Sài, Sa Pa Town

| colspan="2" |

|'Laghuu language'

|

|-

|colspan="2"|Malayalam

|

|

|'head'

|See Malayalam phonology

|-

|colspan=2| Mapudungun

|

|align=center|

| 'to give'

|

|-

| colspan="2" |Nepali

|

|align=center|

|'long'

|See Nepali phonology

|-

| colspan="2" |Odia

|

|align=center|

|'good'

|

|-

| colspan="2" |Persian

|/

| align=center|

| 'llama'

| See Persian phonology

|-

|colspan=2| Polish

|

|align=center|

| 'field'

| Contrasts with () for a small number of speakers. When it does, it might be palatalized to . See Polish phonology

|-

|colspan=2| Romanian

|

|align=center|

| 'hazelnut'

| Apical. See Romanian phonology

|-

|colspan=2| Scottish Gaelic

|

|align=center|

| 'headland'

| Apical. Contrasts with and . See Scottish Gaelic phonology

|-

|colspan=2| Slovak

|

|align=center|

| 'silent'

| Syllabic form can be long or short. See Slovak phonology

|-

|colspan=2| Slovene

|

|align=center|

| 'airplane'

| See Slovene phonology

|-

|colspan=2| Spanish

|

|align=center|

| 'to speak'

| See Spanish phonology

|-

|colspan=2| Tamil

| /

|align=center|

| 'tiger'

| See Tamil phonology

|-

| colspan="2" |Welsh

|

|[djavɔl]

|'devil'

|See Welsh phonology

|-

|colspan=2| Ukrainian

| /

|align=center|

| 'face'

| Contrasts with palatalized form. See Ukrainian phonology

|}

Postalveolar

{| class="wikitable"

!colspan=2| Language

! Word

! IPA

! Meaning

! Notes

|-

| Igbo

| Standard

|

|align=center|

| 'bury'

|

|-

|colspan=2| Italian

|

|align=center|

| 'the deer'

| Palatalized laminal; allophone of before . See Italian phonology

|-

|colspan=2| Turkish

|

|align=center|

| 'tulip'

| Palatalized; contrasts with a velarized dental lateral . May be devoiced elsewhere. See Turkish phonology

|-

| Zapotec

| Tilquiapan

|

|align=center|

| 'soot'

|

|}

Variable

{| class="wikitable"

!colspan=2| Language

! Word

! IPA

! Meaning

! Notes

|-

|colspan=2| Faroese

|

|align=center|

| 'soft'

| Varies between dental and alveolar in initial position, whereas the postvocalic may be postalveolar, especially after back vowels. See Faroese phonology

|-

|colspan=2| French

|

|align=center|

| 'he'

| Varies between laminal denti-alveolar and apical alveolar, with the latter being predominant. See French phonology

|-

| Gbe

| All lects

| colspan=2 style="text-align:center;"|

| 'to lie down'

| Occurs syllable-initially or as second element of syllable-initial cluster; nasalized is always followed by a nasal vowel. See Gbe phonology

|-

| German

| Standard

|

|align=center|

| 'love'

| Varies between denti-alveolar, laminal alveolar and apical alveolar.

|-

| Norwegian

| Urban East

|

|align=center|

| '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 . See Norwegian phonology

|-

|rowspan=2| Portuguese

|rowspan=2| Most Brazilian dialects, some EP speakers

|

|align=center|

| 'runaround'

|rowspan=2 colspan=2| Clear, dental to sometimes alveolar. 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.

|-

|

|align=center|

| 'Lithuania'

|}

Velarized or pharyngealized alveolar lateral approximant <span class="anchor" id="Dark L"></span><span class="anchor" id="dark l"></span>

A voiced velarized or pharyngealized alveolar lateral approximant (also known as 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 (for a velarized lateral) and (for a pharyngealized lateral), though the dedicated letter , which covers both velarization and pharyngealization, is perhaps more common. The latter should not be confused with belted , which represents the voiceless alveolar lateral fricative. However, some scholars use that symbol to represent the velarized alveolar lateral approximant anyway – though such usage is considered non-standard.

If the sound is dental or denti-alveolar, one could use a dental diacritic to indicate so: , , .

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.

The term dark l is often synonymous with hard l, especially in Slavic languages. (s)

Features

Features of a dark l:

  • There are four specific place of articulation variants of :
  • Dental, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue at the upper teeth.
  • Denti-alveolar, which means it is articulated with the blade of the tongue at the alveolar ridge, and the tip of the tongue behind upper teeth.
  • Alveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or, more rarely, the blade of the tongue at the alveolar ridge, termed respectively apical and laminal.
  • Postalveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue behind the alveolar ridge, termed respectively apical and laminal.
  • It has a secondary articulation of velarization or pharyngealization, meaning that the back or root of the tongue approaches the soft palate (velum), or the back of the throat, respectively.

Occurrence

Dental or denti-alveolar

{| class="wikitable"

!colspan=2| Language

! Word

! IPA

! Meaning

! Notes

|-

|colspan=2| Bashkir

| /

|align=center|

| 'city'

| Velarized dental lateral; occurs in back vowel contexts.

|-

|colspan=2| Belarusian

| /

|align=center|

| 'Belarus'

| Laminal denti-alveolar; contrasts with palatalized form. See Belarusian phonology

|-

|colspan=2| Bulgarian

| /

|align=center|

| 'chair'

| Laminal denti-alveolar. See Bulgarian phonology

|-

|colspan=2| Catalan ||

|align=center|

| 'tall'

| Laminal denti-alveolar. Allophone of before . See Catalan phonology

|-

|colspan=2| Classical Armenian || /

|align=center|

| 'games'

| in modern Armenian.

|-

|colspan=2| Icelandic

|

|align=center|

| 'sailed'

| Laminal denti-alveolar; rare. See Icelandic phonology

|-

| Kashubian

| Older southeastern speakers See Norwegian phonology

|-

| Polish

| Eastern dialects

|

|align=center|

| 'paw'

| Laminal denti-alveolar. Corresponds to in other varieties. See Polish phonology

|-

|colspan=2| Russian

| /

|align=center|

| 'small'

| Pharyngealized laminal denti-alveolar. See Russian phonology

|-

|colspan=2| Scottish Gaelic

|

| align=center|

| 'Mallaig'

| Apical dental, occasionally laminal. In certain dialects manifests as or . Contrasts with and . See Scottish Gaelic phonology

|-

|Swedish

|Northern Västerbotten

|kall

|align=center|

|'cold'

|Allophone of /lː/

|-

|colspan=2| Turkish

|

|align=center|

| 'servant'

| Laminal denti-alveolar; contrasts with a palatalized postalveolar lateral . May be devoiced elsewhere. See Turkish phonology

|}

Alveolar

{| class="wikitable"

!colspan=2| Language

! Word

! IPA

! Meaning

! Notes

|-

| Afrikaans

| Standard

|

|align=center|

| 'table'

| Velarized in all positions, especially non-prevocalically. See Afrikaans phonology

|-

| Albanian

| Standard

|

|align=center|

| 'smoking pipe'

|

|-

| Arabic

| Standard

| /

|align=center|

| 'God'

| Also transcribed as . Many accents and dialects lack the sound and instead pronounce . See Arabic phonology

|-

|rowspan=2| Catalan

| Eastern

| rowspan="2" |

| align=center |

| rowspan="2" | 'to the'

| rowspan=2 | Apical. Can be always dark in many dialects. See Catalan phonology

|-

| Western

| align=center |

|-

|rowspan=2|Dutch

| Standard

|

|align=center|

| 'molds'

| Laminal; pharyngealized in northern accents, velarized or post-palatalised in southern accents. It is an allophone of before consonants and pauses, and also prevocalically when after the open back vowels . Many northern speakers realize the final as a strongly pharyngealised vocoid , whereas some Standard Belgian speakers use the clear in all positions. See Dutch phonology

|-

| Some Netherlandic accents

|

|align=center|

| 'to let'

| Pharyngealized laminal; realization of in all positions. See Dutch phonology

|-

|rowspan=8| English

| Australian

|rowspan=7| feel

|rowspan=7 align=center|

|rowspan=7| 'feel'

|rowspan=7| Most often apical; can be always dark in Australia and New Zealand. See Australian English phonology, New Zealand English phonology, and English phonology

|-

| Canadian

|-

| Dublin

|-

| General American

|-

| New Zealand

|-

| Received Pronunciation

|-

| South African

|-

| Scottish

| loch

|align=center|

| 'loch'

| Can be always dark except in some borrowings from Scottish Gaelic

|-

| Greek

| Northern dialects|| | /

|align=center|

| 'ball'

| Allophone of before . See Modern Greek phonology

|-

| colspan="2" |Georgian

|/

|[ˈʒo̞ɫo̞]

|'raspberry'

|An allophone of /l/ before /o u/ and /a/. See Georgian phonology

|-

|Kurdish || Sorani

| /گاڵتا

|align=center|

|'joke'

|See Kurdish phonology

|-

| Romanian

| Bessarabian dialect

|

|align=center|

| 'horse'

| Corresponds to non-velarized in standard Romanian. See Romanian phonology

|-

|colspan=2| Serbo-Croatian

| //لاق

|align=center|

| 'easy'

| Apical; may be syllabic; contrasts with . See Serbo-Croatian phonology

|-

|colspan=2| Uzbek

|

|

|

| Apical; between a non-front rounded vowel and a consonant or juncture phoneme. Non-velarized denti-alveolar elsewhere.

|}

Variable

{| class="wikitable"

!colspan=2| Language

! Word

! IPA

! Meaning

! Notes

|-

|rowspan=2| Portuguese

| European

|

|align=center|

| 'thousand'

| Dental and strongly velarized in all environments for most speakers, though less so before front vowels.

|

|align=center|

| 'alcohol, ethanol'

| When , most often dental. Coda is now vocalized to in most of Brazil (as in EP in rural parts of Alto Minho and Madeira). Stigmatized realizations such as , the range, and even (zero) are some other coda allophones typical of Brazil. See Portuguese phonology

|}

See also

  • Index of phonetics articles
  • Lateral consonant
  • Velarization
  • L-vocalization
  • Ł

Notes

References

  • Dark L