Velarized alveolar lateral approximant

The velarized alveolar lateral approximant, which may actually be pharyngealized, also known as dark l, is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. Velarization/Pharyngealization is generally associated with more dental articulations of coronal consonants so that dark l tends to be dental or denti-alveolar while clear l tends to be retracted to an alveolar position.

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 dental or alveolar, which means it is articulated with the tip (or, more rarely, the blade of the tongue) against the alveolar ridge. It also 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 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.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Albanian		halla	[ˈhaɫa]	'armpit'
Arabic	Standard	الله	[ʔɑɫ̪ːɑːh]	'God, Allah'	Also transcribed as . See Arabic phonology
Catalan	Eastern dialects	til·la	[ˈtiɫːə]	'linden'	See Catalan phonology
Dutch	Belgian	bal	[bɑɫ]	'ball'	Postvocalic allophone of /l/. See Dutch phonology
English	RP and GA	peel		'peel'	See English phonology
	Scottish English	loch	[ɫɔx]	'loch'
Irish		lá		'day'	See Irish phonology
Norwegian	northern dialects	spelle		'to play'	See Norwegian phonology
Polish	eastern dialects	łapa		'paw'	Corresponds to /w/ in standard Polish. See Polish phonology
Portuguese	European	''mil		'one thousand'	See Portuguese phonology
Russian		малый		'small'	See Russian phonology
Scottish Gaelic		Mallaig		'Mallaig'
St’át’imcets		qaoḻ	[qáɫ]	'bad'
Turkish		kızıl	[kɯzɯɫ]	'red'	See Turkish phonology

Notes

References

See also

• Lateral consonant
• Velarization
• l-vocalization
• Ł