Alveolar lateral approximant

Alveolar lateral approximant
l
IPA number	155
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	l
Unicode (hex)	U+006C
X-SAMPA	l
Kirshenbaum	l
Braille
Sound

The alveolar lateral approximant, also known as clear l, is a type of consonantal sound used in some 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 Tibeto-Burman languages, but uncommon elsewhere. In such cases, voicing typically starts about halfway through the hold of the consonant. No language contrasts 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 in certain contexts, a sound often called "dark l". Some languages, like many North American dialects of English may not have a "clear" /l/ at all.

Features

Features of the 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.
• Its place of articulation is 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.
• 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.
• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Languages may have clear apical or laminal alveolars (such as Bulgarian, which has both), laminal denti-alveolars (such as French), or true dentals, which are uncommon. However, a true dental generally occurs allophonically before /θ/ in languages which have it, as in English health.

Alveolar

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Abkhaz		мгьал	[mɡʲal]	'bread'	See Abkhaz phonology
Adyghe		кӀалэ	[t͡ʃaːla]	'boy'
Albanian		lis	[lis]	'tree'
Arabic	Standard	لا	[laː]	'no'	See Arabic phonology
Armenian	Eastern	լուսին	[lusin]	'moon'
Basque		lan	[lan]	'work'
Bulgarian		или	[ili]	'or'
Catalan		tela	[ˈtɛlə]	'fabric'	Front alveolar. May also be velarized. See Catalan phonology
Chinese	Mandarin	老 lǎo	[lɑʊ˨˩˦]	'old'	See Mandarin phonology
Czech		lis	[lɪs]	'press'	See Czech phonology
Dutch		leven	[ˈleːvə(n)]	'to live'	See Dutch phonology
English		let	[lɛt]	'let'	See English phonology
Finnish		illalla	[ilːɑlːɑ]	'at evening'	See Finnish phonology
German		Liebe	[liːbə]	'love'	See German phonology
Greek		άλμα álma	[ˈalma]	'jump'	See Modern Greek phonology
Hebrew		לא	[lo̞]	'no'	See Modern Hebrew phonology
Hungarian		elem	[ɛlɛm]	'battery'	See Hungarian phonology
Italian		letto	[ˈlɛt̪t̪o]	'bed'	See Italian phonology
Kabardian		щIалэ	[ɕʼaːla]	'boy'
Malay		lagi	[laɡi]	'again'
Marathi		लग्न	[ləɡ'nə]	'wedding'	See Marathi phonology
Norwegian		liv	[liːv]	'life'	Can be dental in eastern dialects. See Norwegian phonology
Polish		pole	[ˈpɔlɛ]	'field'	See Polish phonology
Romanian		alună	[äˈlun̪ə]	'hazelnut'	Apical. See Romanian phonology
Russian		ключ	[klʲʉtɕ]	'key'	Contrasts palatalized and velarized variants. See Russian phonology
Slovak		mĺkvy	[ˈml̩ːkʋɪ]	'silent'	Syllabic form can be long or short
Spanish		hablar	[äˈβ̞läɾ]	'to speak'	See Spanish phonology
Tibetan		ལྷ་ས་	[l̥ásə]	'Lhasa'	Contrasts voiced and voiceless lateral approximants
West Frisian		lyts	[lit͡s]	'small'	In complementary distribution with [ɫ]; occurs before [i] and [y]

Dental or denti-alveolar

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Dutch	Belgian	lucht	[l̪ʏxt̪]	'air'	Some dialects.
English	Some dialects	wealth	[ˈwɛl̪θ]	'wealth'	Present in dialects with no dark l and no l-vocalization.
French		il	[il]	'he'	See French phonology
Macedonian		лево	[l̪e̞vo̞]	'left'	See Macedonian phonology
Mapudungun			[l̪afken̪]	'sea, lake'	Interdental
Norwegian	Eastern	liv	[l̪iːv]	'life'	Some dialects, in others it's alveolar. See Norwegian phonology
Pashto		لس	[ləs]	'ten'
Russian					Contrasts palatalized and velarized variants. See Russian phonology
Swedish	Central Standard	allt	[äl̪t̪]	'everything'	See Swedish phonology
Tamil		புலி	[puli]	'tiger'	See Tamil phonology
Ukrainian		обличчя	[ɔˈblɪt͡ʃʲːɑ]	'face'	See Ukrainian phonology
Vietnamese		lửa	[lɨə˧˩˧]	'fire'	See Vietnamese phonology

Variable

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Chinese	Cantonese	老 lou5	[lou˩˧˦]	'old'	Alveolar to sometimes dental. See Cantonese phonology
Korean		물집 muljip	[mult͡ɕ̤ip̚]	'blister'	Alveolar to post-alveolar. See Korean phonology
Portuguese	Most Brazilian dialects	lero-lero	[ˈlɛɾu ˈlɛɾu]	'runaround'	Dental to sometimes alveolar. Always velarized in other dialects. See Portuguese phonology

See also

• List of phonetics topics
• Velarized alveolar lateral approximant

Bibliography

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