Voiced dental, alveolar and postalveolar lateral approximants

Voiced dental lateral approximant
Voiced dental lateral approximant
l̪
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Voiced postalveolar lateral approximant
Voiced postalveolar lateral approximant
l̠
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Voiced alveolar lateral approximant
Voiced alveolar lateral approximant
l
IPA Number	155
Audio sample
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Encoding
Entity (decimal)	l
Unicode (hex)	U+006C
X-SAMPA	l
Braille

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, /l̥/ 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 [ɬ].

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 [i]).

Features

Features of the voiced alveolar lateral approximant:

Its manner of articulation is approximant, which means it is produced by narrowing the vocal tract at the place of articulation, but not enough to produce a turbulent airstream.
There are four specific variants of [l]:
- 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.
Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
It is a lateral consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream over the sides of the tongue, rather than down the middle.
Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

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.^[3] However, a true dental generally occurs allophonically before /θ/ in languages that have it, as in English health.

Dental or denti-alveolar

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Arabic	Gulf^[4]	لـين/leen	[l̪eːn]	'when'	Laminal denti-alveolar. See Arabic phonology
Chinese	Cantonese	蘭/laan4	[l̪an˨˩]	'orchid'
Chinese	Mandarin	蘭/lán	[l̪an˨˥]	'orchid'
Hungarian^[5]		elem	[ˈɛl̪ɛm]	'battery'	Laminal denti-alveolar. See Hungarian phonology
Italian^[6]^[7]^[8]		molto	[ˈmol̪ːt̪o]	'much, a lot'	Laminal denti-alveolar. Allophone of /l/ before /t, d, s, z, t͡s, d͡z/.^[6]^[7]^[8] See Italian phonology
Macedonian^[9]		лево/levo	[l̪e̞vo̞]	'left'	Laminal denti-alveolar. See Macedonian phonology
Malayalam		ലാവണം	[läːʋɐɳɐm]	'Salty'	See Malayalam phonology
Mapudungun^[10]		ḻafkeṉ	[l̪ɐ̝fkën̪]	'sea, lake'	Interdental.^[10]
Norwegian	Urban East^[11]	anlegg	[²ɑnːl̪ɛg]	'plant (industrial)'	Allophone of /l/ after /n, t, d/.^[11] See Norwegian phonology
Spanish^[12]		altar	[äl̪ˈt̪äɾ]	'altar'	Laminal denti-alveolar. Allophone of /l/ before /t/, /d/. See Spanish phonology
Swedish	Central Standard^[13]	allt	[äl̪t̪]	'everything'	Laminal denti-alveolar. See Swedish phonology
Tamil^[14]		புலி/puli	[pul̪i]	'tiger'	See Tamil phonology
Uzbek^[15]		kelajak	[kel̪ædʒæk]	'future'	Laminal denti-alveolar. Velarized between a non-front rounded vowel and a consonant or juncture phoneme.^[15]
Vietnamese	Hanoi^[16]	lửa	[l̪ɨə˧˩˧]	'fire'	See Vietnamese phonology

Alveolar

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Arabic	Standard^[17]	لا/lā	[laʔ]	'no'	See Arabic phonology
Armenian	Eastern^[18]	լուսին/lusin	[lusin]^ⓘ	'moon'
Assyrian		ܠܚܡܐ/läḳma	[lεxma]	'bread'
Catalan^[19]^[20]		laca	[ˈlɑkɐ]	'hair spray'	Apical 'front alveolar'.^[19]^[20] May also be velarized.^[21] See Catalan phonology
Chuvash		хула	[хu'la]	'city'
Dutch	Standard^[22]	laten	[ˈl̻aːt̻ə]	'to let'	Laminal. Some Standard Belgian speakers use the clear /l/ in all positions.^[22] See Dutch phonology
Dutch	Some Eastern accents^[23]	mal	[mɑl̻]	'mold'	Laminal; realization of /l/ in all positions.^[23] See Dutch phonology
Dhivehi		ލަވަ/lava	[laʋa]	'song'
English	Most accents^[24]	let	[lɛt]	'let'	Varies between apical and laminal, with the latter being predominant.^[24]
English	Irish, Geordie^[25]	tell	[tʰɛl]	'tell'
Esperanto		luno	[ˈluno]	'moon'	See Esperanto phonology
Filipino		luto	[ˈluto]	'cook'	See Filipino phonology
Greek		λέξη/léksi	[ˈleksi]	'word'	See Modern Greek phonology
Italian^[6]^[26]^[27]		letto	[ˈlɛt̪ːo]	'bed'	Apical.^[7] See Italian phonology
Japanese		六/roku	[lo̞kɯ̟ᵝ]	'six'	Apical.^[28] More commonly [ɾ]. See Japanese phonology
Kashubian^[29]		^{[example needed]}
Khmer		ភ្លេង/phléng	[pʰleːŋ]	'music'	See Khmer phonology
Korean		일/il	[il]	'one' or 'work'	Realized as alveolar tap ɾ in the beginning of a syllable. See Korean phonology.
Kyrgyz^[30]		көпөлөк/köpölök	[køpøˈløk]	'butterfly'	Velarized in back vowel contexts. See Kyrgyz phonology
Laghu		laghu	[lagu]	'Laghu language'
Laghuu	Nậm Sài, Sa Pa Town	[la˧˨ ɣɯ˥]		'Laghuu language'
Mapudungun^[10]		elun	[ëˈlʊn]	'to give'
Nepali		लामो	[lämo]	'long'	See Nepali phonology
Odia^[31]		ଭଲ	[bʰɔlɔ]	'good'
Persian		لاما/lāmā	[lɒmɒ]	'llama'	See Persian phonology
Polish^[32]		pole	[ˈpɔlɛ]^ⓘ	'field'	Contrasts with [ɫ̪] (/w/) for a small number of speakers. When it does, it might be palatalized to [lʲ]. See Polish phonology
Romanian^[33]		alună	[äˈlun̪ə]	'hazelnut'	Apical. See Romanian phonology
Scottish Gaelic^[34]		maoil	[mɯːl]	'headland'	Contrasts with /ɫ̪/ and /ʎ/. See Scottish Gaelic phonology
Slovak^[35]		mĺkvy	[ˈml̩ːkʋi]^ⓘ	'silent'	Syllabic form can be long or short. See Slovak phonology
Slovene^[36]		letalo	[lɛˈt̪àːlɔ]	'airplane'	See Slovene phonology
Spanish^[37]		hablar	[äˈβ̞läɾ]	'to speak'	See Spanish phonology
Welsh		diafol	[djavɔl]	'devil'	See Welsh phonology
Ukrainian^[38]		обличчя/oblychchya	[oˈblɪt͡ʃːɐ]	'face'	Contrasts with palatalized form. See Ukrainian phonology

Postalveolar

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Igbo	Standard^[39]	lì	[l̠ì]	'bury'
Italian^[7]		il cervo	[il̠ʲ ˈt͡ʃɛrvo]	'the deer'	Palatalized laminal; allophone of /l/ before /ʃ, t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ/.^[7] See Italian phonology
Turkish^[40]^[41]		lale	[ʎ̟ɑːˈʎ̟ɛ]^ⓘ	'tulip'	Palatalized; contrasts with a velarized dental lateral [ɫ̟].^[40]^[41] May be devoiced elsewhere. See Turkish phonology
Zapotec	Tilquiapan^[42]	lan	[l̠an]	'soot'

Variable

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Faroese^[43]		linur	[ˈliːnʊɹ]	'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	[ˈliːbə]	'love'	Varies between denti-alveolar, laminal alveolar and apical alveolar.^[45]
Norwegian	Urban East^[46]	liv	[liːʋ]	'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	[ˈlɛɾʊ ˈlɛɾʊ]	'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.
Portuguese		Lituânia	[l̪it̪uˈɐ̃ɲ̟ɐ]^ⓘ	'Lithuania'

Velarized alveolar lateral approximant

Velarized L

lˠ

lˤ

ɫ

IPA Number 209

Audio sample

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Encoding

Entity (decimal) lˠ

Unicode (hex) U+006C U+02E0

X-SAMPA 5 or l_G or l_?\

Image

The voiced velarized alveolar 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 ⟨lˠ⟩ (for a velarized lateral) and ⟨lˤ⟩ (for a pharyngealized lateral), though the dedicated letter ⟨ɫ⟩, which covers both velarization and pharyngealization, is perhaps more common. The latter should not be confused with belted ⟨ɬ⟩, which represents the voiceless alveolar lateral fricative. However, some scholars use that symbol to represent the velarized alveolar lateral approximant anyway^[53] – though such usage is considered non-standard.

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

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

Features of the dark l:

Its manner of articulation is approximant, which means it is produced by narrowing the vocal tract at the place of articulation, but not enough to produce a turbulent airstream.
There are four specific variants of [ɫ]:
- 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,^[54] 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.
Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
It is a lateral consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream over the sides of the tongue, rather than down the middle.
Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.