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
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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 have not a "clear" /l/ at all.

Features [edit]

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 [edit]

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[1]	لا	[laː]	'no'	See Arabic phonology
Armenian	Eastern[2]	լուսին	[lusin] (help·info)	'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[3]		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[4]		pole	[ˈpɔlɛ] (help·info)	'field'	See Polish phonology
Romanian[5]		alună	[äˈlun̪ə]	'hazelnut'	Apical. See Romanian phonology
Russian		ключ	[klʲʉtɕ] (help·info)	'key'	Contrasts palatalized and velarized variants. See Russian phonology
Slovak[6]		mĺkvy	[ˈml̩ːkʋɪ]	'silent'	Syllabic form can be long or short
Spanish[7]		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

Variable

See also [edit]

• List of phonetics topics
• Velarized alveolar lateral approximant

References [edit]

Bibliography [edit]

• Barbosa, Plínio A.; Albano, Eleonora C. (2004), "Brazilian Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (2): 227–232, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001756 
• Chițoran, Ioana (2001), The Phonology of Romanian: A Constraint-based Approach, Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter, ISBN 3-11-016766-2 
• Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995), "European Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 25 (2): 90–94, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005223 
• Dum-Tragut, Jasmine (2009), Armenian: Modern Eastern Armenian, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company 
• Engstrand, Olle (2004), Fonetikens grunder (in Swedish), Lund: Studenlitteratur, ISBN 91-44-04238-8 
• Hanulíková, Adriana; Hamann, Silke (2010), "Slovak", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 40 (3): 373–378, doi:10.1017/S0025100310000162 
• Keane, Elinor (2004), "Tamil", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (1): 111–116, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001549 
• Ladefoged, Peter (2005), Vowels and Consonants (Second ed.), Blackwell 
• Lunt, Horace G. (1952), Grammar of the Macedonian Literary Language, Skopje 
• Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Fernández-Planas, Ana Ma.; Carrera-Sabaté, Josefina (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (2): 255–259, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001373 
• Merrill, Elizabeth (2008), "Tilquiapan Zapotec", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 38 (1): 107–114, doi:10.1017/S0025100308003344 
• Olson, Kenneth; Mielke, Jeff; Sanicas-Daguman, Josephine; Pebley, Carol Jean; Paterson, Hugh J., III (2010), "The phonetic status of the (inter)dental approximant", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 40 (2): 199–215, doi:10.1017/S0025100309990296 
• Rocławski, Bronisław (1976), Zarys fonologii, fonetyki, fonotaktyki i fonostatystyki współczesnego języka polskiego, Wydawnictwo Uczelniane Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego, pp. 130–181 
• Rogers, Derek; d'Arcangeli, Luciana (2004), "Italian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (1): 117–121, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001628 
• Shosted, Ryan K.; Vakhtang, Chikovani (2006), "Standard Georgian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 36 (2): 255–264, doi:10.1017/S0025100306002659 
• Thelwall, Robin (1990), "Illustrations of the IPA: Arabic", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 20 (2): 37–41, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004266 
• Thompson, Laurence (1959), "Saigon phonemics", Language 35 (3): 454–476, doi:10.2307/411232, JSTOR 411232 

v t e   International Phonetic Alphabet   IPA topics IPA International Phonetic Association History of the IPA Extensions to the IPA Kiel convention (1989) Journal of the IPA (JIPA) Naming conventions Phonetics Diacritics Segments Tone letter Place of articulation Manner of articulation Special topics Case variants of IPA letters Handwritten IPA Obsolete and nonstandard symbols IPA chart for English dialects Encodings SAMPA X-SAMPA Conlang X-SAMPA Kirshenbaum TIPA Phonetic symbols in Unicode WorldBet IPA Braille   Consonants v t e IPA pulmonic consonantschart image • audio Place → Labial Coronal Dorsal Radical Glottal ↓ Manner Bila­bial Labio-​dental Den​tal Alve​olar Post­alveolar Retro​flex Alveolo-​palatal Pal​a​tal Ve​lar Uvu​lar Pha​ryn​geal Epi​glot​tal Glot​tal Nasal m̥ m ɱ n̪ n̥ n n̠ ɳ̊ ɳ ɲ̟ ɲ̊ ɲ ŋ̊ ŋ ɴ Stop p b p̪ b̪ t̪ d̪ t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ ʡ ʔ Sibilant fricative s̪ z̪ s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ ɕ ʑ Non-sibilant fricative ɸ β f v θ ð θ̱ ð̠ ç ʝ x ɣ χ ʁ ħ ʕ ʜ ʢ h ɦ Approximant ʋ ɹ ɻ j̊ j ɰ Flap or tap ⱱ̟ ⱱ ɾ ɽ ɢ̆ ʡ̯ Trill ʙ r̥ r ɽ͡r ʀ ᴙ * Lateral fricative ɬ ɮ ꞎ * ʎ̝̊ ʟ̝̊ ʟ̝ Lateral approximant l̥ l ɭ ʎ̟ ʎ ʟ Lateral flap ɺ ɺ̢ * ʎ̯ ʟ̆ Non-pulmonic consonants Clicks ʘ ǀ ǃ ǂ ǁ ʘ̃ ʘ̃ˀ ʘ͡q ʘ͡qʼ ‼ Implosives ɓ ɗ ʄ ᶑ ɠ ʛ Ejectives pʼ t̪ʼ tʼ cʼ ʈʼ kʼ qʼ fʼ θʼ sʼ ɬʼ ʃʼ ʂʼ ɕʼ xʼ χʼ tsʼ tɬʼ cʎ̝̥ʼ tʃʼ ʈʂʼ kxʼ kʟ̝̊ʼ qχʼ Affricates p̪f b̪v ts dz t̪s̪ d̪z̪ tθ dð tʃ dʒ tɕ dʑ ʈʂ ɖʐ tɬ dɮ cç ɟʝ cʎ̥˔ kx ɡɣ kʟ̝̊ ɡʟ̝ qχ ɢʁ Co-articulated consonants Continuants ʍ w ɥ ɧ Occlusives k͡p ɡ͡b ŋ͡m — These tables contain phonetic symbols, which may not display correctly in some browsers. [Help] — Where symbols appear in pairs, left–right represent the voiceless–voiced consonants. — Shaded areas denote pulmonic articulations judged to be impossible. — Symbols marked with an asterisk (*) are not defined in the IPA. Chart image Pulmonics Non-pulmonics Affricates Co-articulated   Vowels Front Near-​front Central Near-​back Back Close •iy •ɨʉ •ɯu •ɪʏ •ɪ̈ʊ̈ ʊ •eø •ɘɵ •ɤo •e̞ø̞ ə •ɤ̞o̞ •ɛœ •ɜɞ •ʌɔ æ ɐ •aɶ ä •ɑɒ Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Vowels: IPA help • chart •  chart with audio • view