The voiced alveolar lateral approximant is a type of
consonantal sound used in many
spoken languages. The symbol in the
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic transcription, phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standa ...
that represents
dental,
alveolar Alveolus (; pl. alveoli, adj. alveolar) is a general anatomical term for a concave cavity or pit.
Uses in anatomy and zoology
* Pulmonary alveolus, an air sac in the lungs
** Alveolar cell or pneumocyte
** Alveolar duct
** Alveolar macrophage
* ...
, and
postalveolar
Postalveolar or post-alveolar consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the ''back'' of the alveolar ridge. Articulation is farther back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but no ...
lateral approximants is , and the equivalent
X-SAMPA symbol is .
As a
sonorant
In phonetics and phonology, a sonorant or resonant is a speech sound that is produced with continuous, non-turbulent airflow in the vocal tract; these are the manners of articulation that are most often voiced in the world's languages. Vowels are ...
, 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 known as: "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 them only before
front vowel
A front vowel is a class of vowel sounds used in some spoken languages, its defining characteristic being that the highest point of the tongue is positioned as far forward as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would otherw ...
s (especially ).
Features
Features of the voiced alveolar lateral approximant:
* There are four specific 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
A laminal consonant is a phone (speech sound) produced by obstructing the air passage with the blade of the tongue, the flat top front surface just behind the tip of the tongue in contact
with upper lip, teeth, alveolar ridge, to possibly, as ...
''.
**
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 Alveolus (; pl. alveoli, adj. alveolar) is a general anatomical term for a concave cavity or pit.
Uses in anatomy and zoology
* Pulmonary alveolus, an air sac in the lungs
** Alveolar cell or pneumocyte
** Alveolar duct
** Alveolar macrophage
* ...
, 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
Postalveolar or post-alveolar consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the ''back'' of the alveolar ridge. Articulation is farther back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but no ...
, 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''.
Dental or denti-alveolar
Alveolar
Postalveolar
Variable
Velarized alveolar lateral approximant
The velarized alveolar lateral approximant ( 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
In phonetics, secondary articulation occurs when the articulation of a consonant is equivalent to the combined articulations of two or three simpler consonants, at least one of which is an approximant. The secondary articulation of such co-articul ...
of
velarization or
pharyngealization
Pharyngealization is a secondary articulation of consonants or vowels by which the pharynx or epiglottis is constricted during the articulation of the sound.
IPA symbols
In the International Phonetic Alphabet, pharyngealization can be indicated ...
. The regular symbols in the
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic transcription, phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standa ...
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
[For example .] – 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 consonant
Coronals are consonants articulated with the flexible front part of the tongue. Among places of articulation, only the coronal consonants can be divided into as many articulation types: apical (using the tip of the tongue), laminal (using the bla ...
s, 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. (Cf.
Hard consonant
In phonetics, palatalization (, also ) or palatization is a way of pronouncing a consonant in which part of the tongue is moved close to the hard palate. Consonants pronounced this way are said to be palatalized and are transcribed in the Internat ...
s)
Features
Features of the dark l:
* There are four specific 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 Alveolus (; pl. alveoli, adj. alveolar) is a general anatomical term for a concave cavity or pit.
Uses in anatomy and zoology
* Pulmonary alveolus, an air sac in the lungs
** Alveolar cell or pneumocyte
** Alveolar duct
** Alveolar macrophage
* ...
, 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
A laminal consonant is a phone (speech sound) produced by obstructing the air passage with the blade of the tongue, the flat top front surface just behind the tip of the tongue in contact
with upper lip, teeth, alveolar ridge, to possibly, as ...
''.
**
Postalveolar
Postalveolar or post-alveolar consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the ''back'' of the alveolar ridge. Articulation is farther back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but no ...
, 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
In phonetics, secondary articulation occurs when the articulation of a consonant is equivalent to the combined articulations of two or three simpler consonants, at least one of which is an approximant. The secondary articulation of such co-articul ...
of
velarization or
pharyngealization
Pharyngealization is a secondary articulation of consonants or vowels by which the pharynx or epiglottis is constricted during the articulation of the sound.
IPA symbols
In the International Phonetic Alphabet, pharyngealization can be indicated ...
, meaning that the back or
root of the tongue
The tongue is a muscular organ in the mouth of a typical tetrapod. It manipulates food for mastication and swallowing as part of the digestive process, and is the primary organ of taste. The tongue's upper surface (dorsum) is covered by tast ...
approaches the
soft palate (velum), or the back of the throat, respectively.
Occurrence
Dental or denti-alveolar
Alveolar
Variable
See also
*
Index of phonetics articles
A
* Acoustic phonetics
* Active articulator
* Affricate
* Airstream mechanism
* Alexander John Ellis
* Alexander Melville Bell
* Alfred C. Gimson
* Allophone
* Alveolar approximant ()
* Alveolar click ()
* Alveolar consonant
* Alveolar ejecti ...
*
Lateral consonant
*
Velarization
*
''L''-vocalization
*
Ł
Notes
External links
Dark L*
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Alveolar consonants
Dental consonants
Postalveolar consonants
Lateral consonants
Pulmonic consonants
Oral consonants