A voiced velar lateral approximant is a type of consonantal sound, used as a distinct consonant in a very small number of spoken languages in the world. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that has represented this sound since 1989 is , a small capital letter l.
Velar laterals often involve a prestopped realization .
According to , the extremely short duration of in intervocalic position (20–30 ms) in some of the languages in New Guinea, such as Kanite and Melpa, warrants calling it a voiced velar lateral tap. The IPA has no specific symbol for this sound, but it may be represented with a breve for extra-short, such as , to indicate a tapped consonant.
It is reported that some dialects of English may have a voiced uvular lateral approximant, which can be represented in the IPA as (a retracted ), though evidence of this consonant is limited.
Features
Features of a voiced velar lateral approximant:
A velar lateral involves no contact of the tip of the tongue with the roof of the mouth: just like for a velar stop , the only contact takes place between the back of the tongue and the velum. This contrasts with a velarized alveolar lateral approximant – also known as the dark l in English feel – for which the apex touches the alveolar ridge.
Occurrence
Velar
{| class="wikitable"
!colspan=2| Language
! Word
! IPA
! Meaning
! Notes
|-
| rowspan="2" | English
| rowspan="2" | Southern US
| middle
|align=center|
| 'middle'
| rowspan="2" | May occur before or after a velar consonant, as in milk and cycle, when assimilating , as in wolf, or before labial consonants, as in help. More often realized as . See English phonology
|-
|full
|align=center|
|'full'
|-
|colspan=2| Hiw
| r̄evr̄ov
|
| 'evening'
| May be realized as prestopped , affricate , or laterally released stop .
|-
|colspan=2| Kanite
|
|align=center|
|'dog'
|May be realized as an affricate or a tap .
|-
|colspan=2| Melpa
| paⱡa
|align=center|
| 'fence'
| May be realized as prestopped or tapped .
|-
|colspan=2| Mid-Wahgi
| aglagle
|align=center|
| 'dizzy'
| May be realized as prestopped .
|}
Uvular
{| class="wikitable"
!colspan=2| Language
! Word
! IPA
! Meaning
! Notes
|-
| English
| Some American speakers
| wool
|align=center|
| 'wool'
| May be velar or simply alveolar instead. See English phonology.
|}
See also
- Voiceless velar lateral approximant,
- Velarized alveolar lateral approximant,
- Voiceless alveolar lateral fricative,
- Voiced velar lateral fricative,
- Voiceless velar lateral fricative, or extIPA
- Index of phonetics articles