VELARIZED ALVEOLAR LATERAL APPROXIMANT

The 'velarized alveolar lateral approximant', which may actually be uvularized or pharyngealized, also known as 'dark l,' is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages.

Contents

Features

In English

In other languages

See also

Features

Features of the velarized alveolar lateral approximant:

★ Its manner of articulation is approximant, which means it is produced by bringing one articulator close to another but without the vocal tract being narrowed to such an extent that a turbulent airstream is produced.

★ Its place of articulation is alveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue — termed respectively ''apical'' and ''laminal'' — against the alveolar ridge. It also has a secondary articulation of velarization, uvularization, or pharyngealization, meaning that the back or root of the tongue approaches the soft palate (velum), the uvula, or the back of the throat, respectively.

★ Its phonation type is voiced, which means the vocal cords are vibrating during the articulation.

★ It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth.

★ It is a lateral consonant, which means it is produced by allowing the airstream to flow over the sides of the tongue, rather than the middle of the tongue.

★ The airstream mechanism is pulmonic egressive, which means it is articulated by pushing air out of the lungs and through the vocal tract, rather than from the glottis or the mouth.

In English

In many dialects of English, including Received Pronunciation, the velarized lateral alveolar approximant occurs in syllable coda position, as in ''bell'' and ''milk''. In syllable onset position, however, the non-velarized or "plain" alveolar lateral approximant is found. In other words, the dark l is the l-sound used in ''bell'' and ''milk'', as opposed to the clear l, which is the l-sound used in ''lad'' or ''lip''.
Some other dialects of English, such as Scottish English and New York City English, use a velarized or dark l in all positions, while Hiberno-English (Irish English) uses clear l everywhere. Some English accents, such as Cockney, Estuary English, South Australian English, and, to a lesser extent, the African American Vernacular English use [w], [u] or [o] instead of dark l's, a process known as l-vocalization (so that ''bell'' becomes "beww" and ''milk'' becomes "miwk"). Similar changes are found in other languages, such as Serbian, as seen in the Serbian name 'Beograd' of Belgrade.

In other languages

The sound is widespread in European languages, usually as an allophone of the alveolar lateral approximant [l]. Such allophony is found in English, Portuguese and some dialects of German (e.g., the ''Meidlinger L'' from Vienna that is often attributed to influence from Czech.) In some languages like Albanian and Russian, the velarized alveolar lateral is phonemic and contrasts with clear [l] or palatalized []. Outside Europe the sound is rare, though it occurs in several Turkic languages. The emphatic ''l'', found in several Berber languages and the single word ''Allah'' in Arabic, can be realized as velarized or pharyngealized.

★ Albanian: ''ha'll'a'' , "armpit"

★ Arabic: الله , "God"

★ Catalan: ''ti'l·l'a'' , "linden"

★ European Portuguese: ''mi'l''' [], "one thousand"

★ Polish (eastern dialects): '''ł'apa'' [], "paw"

★ Norwegian (dialectal): ''spe'll'e'' [], "to play"

★ Russian: ''ма'л'ый'' [], "small"

★ Scottish Gaelic: ''Mallaig'' [].

★ St'at'imcets: ''qao'ḻ''' [], "bad"

★ Turkish: ''kızı'l''' , "red"

See also

★ Lateral consonant

★ Velarization