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Voiceless dental and alveolar lateral fricatives

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Consonantal sounds represented by ⟨ɬ⟩ in IPA

Voiceless alveolar lateral fricative
ɬ
IPA Number148
Audio sample
Encoding
Entity (decimal)ɬ
Unicode (hex)U+026C
X-SAMPAK
Braille⠦ (braille pattern dots-236)⠇ (braille pattern dots-123)
Image
Voiceless alveolar lateral approximant
l̥
IPA Number155 402A
Encoding
X-SAMPAl_0
voiceless velarized alveolar lateral approximant
ɫ̥

The voiceless alveolar lateral fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents voiceless dental, alveolar, and postalveolar lateral fricatives is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is K.

The symbol is called "belted l" and is distinct from "l with tilde", , which transcribes a different sound – the velarized (or pharynɡealized) alveolar lateral approximant, often called "dark L".

Some scholars also posit the voiceless alveolar lateral approximant distinct from the fricative. More recent research distinguishes between "turbulent" and "laminar" airflow in the vocal tract. Ball & Rahilly (1999) state that "the airflow for voiced approximants remains laminar (smooth), and does not become turbulent". The approximant may be represented in the IPA as ⟨l̥⟩.

In Sino-Tibetan language group, Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996) argue that Burmese and Standard Tibetan have voiceless lateral approximants and Li Fang-Kuei & William Baxter contrast apophonically the voiceless alveolar lateral approximant from its voiced counterpart in the reconstruction of Old Chinese. Scholten (2000) harvcoltxt error: no target: CITEREFScholten2000 (help) includes the voiceless velarized alveolar lateral approximant [ɫ̥].

However, the voiceless dental & alveolar lateral approximant is constantly found as an allophone of its voiced counterpart in British English and Philadelphia English after voiceless coronal and labial stops, who is velarized before back vowels, the allophone of [l] after voiceless dorsal and laryngeal stops is most realized as a voiceless velar lateral approximant. See English phonology.

Features

Features of the voiceless alveolar lateral fricative:

Occurrence

The sound is fairly common among indigenous languages of the Americas, such as Nahuatl and Navajo, and in North Caucasian languages, such as Avar. It is also found in African languages, such as Zulu, and Asian languages, such as Chukchi, some Yue dialects like Taishanese, the Hlai languages of Hainan, and several Formosan languages and dialects in Taiwan.

The sound is rare in European languages outside the Caucasus, but it is found notably in Welsh in which it is written ⟨ll⟩. Several Welsh names beginning with this sound (Llwyd [ɬʊɨd], Llywelyn [ɬəˈwɛlɨn]) have been borrowed into English and then retain the Welsh ⟨ll⟩ spelling but are pronounced with an /l/ (Lloyd, Llewellyn), or they are substituted with ⟨fl⟩ (pronounced /fl/) (Floyd, Fluellen). It was also found in certain dialects of Lithuanian Yiddish.

The phoneme /ɬ/ was also found in the most ancient Hebrew speech of the Ancient Israelites. The orthography of Biblical Hebrew, however, did not directly indicate the phoneme since it and several other phonemes of Ancient Hebrew did not have a grapheme of their own. The phoneme, however, is clearly attested by later developments: /ɬ/ was written with ⟨ש⟩, but the letter was also used for the sound /ʃ/. Later, /ɬ/ merged with /s/, a sound that had been written only with ⟨ס⟩. As a result, three etymologically distinct modern Hebrew phonemes can be distinguished: /s/ written ⟨ס⟩, /ʃ/ written ⟨ש⟩ (with later niqqud pointing שׁ), and /s/ evolving from /ɬ/ and written ⟨ש⟩ (with later niqqud pointing שׂ). The specific pronunciation of ⟨ש⟩ evolving to /s/ from is known based on comparative evidence since /ɬ/ is the corresponding Proto-Semitic phoneme and is still attested in Modern South Arabian languages, and early borrowings indicate it from Ancient Hebrew (e.g. balsam < Greek balsamon < Hebrew baśam). The phoneme /ɬ/ began to merge with /s/ in Late Biblical Hebrew, as is indicated by interchange of orthographic ⟨ש⟩ and ⟨ס⟩, possibly under the influence of Aramaic, and became the rule in Mishnaic Hebrew. In all Jewish reading traditions, /ɬ/ and /s/ have merged completely, but in Samaritan Hebrew /ɬ/ has instead merged into /ʃ/.

The sound is also found in two of the constructed languages invented by J. R. R. Tolkien, Sindarin (inspired by Welsh) and Quenya (inspired by Finnish, Ancient Greek, and Latin). In Sindarin, it is written as ⟨lh⟩ initially and ⟨ll⟩ medially and finally, and in Quenya, it appears only initially and is written ⟨hl⟩.

Dental or denti-alveolar

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Amis Kangko dialect tipid 'bowl' Allophonic variation of word-final and sometimes word-initial /ɮ̪/.
Mapudungun kagüḻ 'phlegm that is spit' Interdental; possible utterance-final allophone of /l̪/.
Norwegian Trondheim dialect sælt 'sold' Laminal denti-alveolar; allophone of /l/. Also described as an approximant. See Norwegian phonology
Scottish Gaelic Lewis falt 'hair' Allophone of /l̪ˠ/ before a pre-aspirated plosive.
Sahaptin 'moccasins' Contrasts approximant /l/.

Alveolar

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Adyghe плъыжь / پݪ‍ہ‍ژ / płəžʼ 'red'
Ahtna dzeł 'mountain'
Avar лъабго / ڸابگۈ / ļabgo 'three'
Basay lanum 'water'
Berber Ait Seghrouchen altu 'not yet' Allophone of /lt/.
Brahui تیڷ / teļ 'scorpion' Contrasts /lɬ/.
Bunun Isbukun dialect ludun 'mountain' Voiceless allophone of /l/ among some speakers.
Bura batli 'early forenoon (7-9pm)' Contrasts with [ɮ] and [ʎ̝̊].
Central Alaskan Yup'ik talliq 'arm'
Cherokee Oklahoma Cherokee tlha, kiihli ~, ~ 'not', 'dog' In free variation with affricate /tɬ/ among some speakers. Also an alternative pronunciation of voiceless lateral approximant , a realization of cluster /hl/.
Chickasaw lhipa 'it is dry'
Chinese Taishanese 三 'three' Corresponds to in Standard Cantonese
Pinghua
Pu-Xian Min 沙 'sand'
Chipewyan łue 'fish'
Chukchi 'shoes'
Dahalo 'stew' Contrasts palatal /ʎ̝̊/ and labialized /ɬʷ/.
Deg Xinag xindigixidiniłan' 'she is teaching them'
Dogrib ło 'smoke' Contrasts voiced /ɮ/.
Eyak qeł 'woman' Contrasts approximant /l/.
Fali 'shoulder'
Forest Nenets хару 'rain' Contrasts palatalized /ɬʲ/.
Greenlandic illu 'house' Realization of underlying geminate /l/. See Greenlandic phonology
Hadza sleme 'man'
Haida tla'únhl 'six'
Halkomelem ɬ'eqw 'wet'
Hla'alua lhatenge 'vegetable'
Hlai 'fish' Contrasts voiced approximant /l/.
Hmong hli 'moon'
Inuktitut ᐊᒃᖤᒃ akłak 'grizzly bear' See Inuit phonology
Kabardian лъы / ݪ‍ہ‍ / ĺı 'blood' Contrasts voiced /ɮ/ and glottalic /ɬʼ/.
Kaska tsį̄ł 'axe'
Kham Gamale Kham ह्ला 'leaf'
Khroskyabs ? 'kill' (causative)
Lillooet lhésp 'rash'
Lushootseed łukʷał 'sun'
Mapudungun kaül 'a different song' Possible utterance-final allophone of /l/.
Mochica paxllær Phaseolus lunatus
Moloko sla 'cow'
Mongolian лхагва 'Wednesday' Only in loanwords from Tibetan; here from ལྷག་པ (lhag-pa)
Muscogee páɬko 'grape'
Nahuatl āltepētl 'city' Allophone of /l/
Navajo łaʼ 'some' See Navajo phonology
Nisga'a hloks 'sun'
Norwegian Trøndersk tatlete 'weak', 'small' Contrasts alveolar approximant /l/, apical postalveolar approximant /ɭ/, and laminal postalveolar approximant /l̠/.
Nuosu 'to fry' Contrasts approximant /l/.
Nuxalk płt 'thick' Contrasts with affricates /t͡ɬʰ/ and /t͡ɬʼ/, and approximant /l/.
Saanich Ƚel 'splash'
Sandawe lhaa 'goat'
Sassarese morthu 'dead'
Sawi ɬo 'three' Contrasts approximant /l/. Developed from earlier *tr- consonant cluster.
Shuswap ɬept 'fire is out'
Sotho ho hlahloba 'to examine' See Sotho phonology
Swedish Jämtlandic kallt 'cold' Also occurs in dialects in Dalarna and Härjedalen. See Swedish phonology
Västerbotten dialect behl 'bridle'
Taos łiwéna 'wife' See Taos phonology
Tera tleebi 'side'
Thao kilhpul 'star'
Tlingit lingít 'Tlingit'
Toda kał 'to learn' Contrasts /lɬɭɭ̊˔(ꞎ)/.
Ukrainian Poltava subdialect молоко 'milk' Occurs only in Poltava subdialect of Central Dniprovian dialect.
Tsez лъи 'water'
Vietnamese Gin dialect 小 'small'
Welsh tegell 'kettle' See Welsh phonology
Xhosa sihlala 'we stay'
Xumi Lower 'head' Described as an approximant. Contrasts with the voiced /l/.
Upper 'to open a lock'
Yurok kerhl 'earring'
Zulu ihlahla 'twig' Contrasts voiced /ɮ/.
Zuni asdemła 'ten'

Alveolar approximant

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Aleut Western Aleut hlax̂ 'boy' Contrasts with voiced /l/. Merged in Eastern Aleut.
Burmese လှ 'beautiful' Contrasts with voiced /l/.
Danish Standard plads 'square' Before /l/, aspiration of /p,t,k/ is realized as devoicing of /l/. See Danish phonology
English Cardiff plus 'plus' See English phonology
Norfolk
Estonian mahl 'juice' Word-final allophone of /l/ after /t,s,h/. See Estonian phonology
Faroese hjálpa 'to help' Allophone of /l/ before fortis plosives.
Iaai 'black' Contrasts with voiced /l/.
Icelandic hlaða 'barn' Contrasts with voiced /l/. Allophonic variation of /l/ before fortis plosives. See Icelandic phonology.
Northern Sámi Eastern Inland bálkká 'salary' Allophone of underlying cluster /lh/
Pipil Contrasted voiced /l/ in some now-extinct dialects.
Southern Nambikwara 'cane toad' Allophonic variation of /l/.
Tibetan Lhasa 'Lhasa'
Ukrainian Standard смисл 'sense' Word-final allophone of /l/ after voiceless consonants. See Ukrainian phonology

Velarized dental or alveolar approximant

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
English Some Philadelphia speakers plus 'plus' See English phonology
Turkish yol 'way' Devoiced allophone of velarized dental /ɫ/, frequent finally and before voiceless consonants. See Turkish phonology

Semitic languages

The sound is conjectured as a phoneme for Proto-Semitic language, usually transcribed as ś; it has evolved into Arabic , Hebrew :

Proto-Semitic Akkadian Arabic Phoenician Hebrew Aramaic Ge'ez
ś s̠ ش š š š שׂ‎ s ܫ s ሠ ś

Among Semitic languages, the sound still exists in contemporary Soqotri and Mehri. In Ge'ez, it is written with the letter Śawt.

Voiceless lateral-median fricative

Voiceless alveolar lateral–median fricative
ʪ
θ̠ˡ
ɬ͡θ̠
ɬ͡s
Voiceless dental lateral–median fricative
ʪ̪
θˡ
ɬ̪͡θ

The voiceless alveolar non-sibilant fricative (also known as a "lisp" fricative) is a consonantal sound. Consonants is pronounced with simultaneous lateral and central airflow.

Features

  • Its manner of articulation is fricative, which means it is produced by constricting air flow through a narrow channel at the place of articulation, causing turbulence. However, it does not have the grooved tongue and directed airflow, or the high frequencies, of a sibilant.
  • 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 voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords. In some languages the vocal cords are actively separated, so it is always voiceless; in others the cords are lax, so that it may take on the voicing of adjacent sounds.
  • It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
  • It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
  • 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

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Arabic Al-Rubūʽah dialect الضيم 'anguish' Classical Arabic *ɮˁ and Modern Standard Arabic
ظامئ 'thirsty' Classical and Modern Standard Arabic

Capital letter

Capital letter L with belt

Since the IPA letter "ɬ" has been adopted into the standard orthographies for many native North American languages, a capital letter L with belt "Ɬ" was requested by academics and added to the Unicode Standard version 7.0 in 2014 at U+A7AD.

See also

Notes

  1. "Dark L". home.cc.umanitoba.ca. Retrieved 7 March 2023.
  2. Pike (1943), pp. 71, 138–9. sfnp error: no target: CITEREFPike1943 (help)
  3. Shadle (2000), pp. 37–8. sfnp error: no target: CITEREFShadle2000 (help)
  4. Ball, Martin J.; Rahilly, Joan (1999). Phonetics: the science of speech. London: Arnold. pp. 50–51. ISBN 978-0-340-70009-9.
  5. ^ Gordon (2004), p. 290. sfnp error: no target: CITEREFGordon2004 (help)
  6. ^ Lodge (2009), p. 168. sfnp error: no target: CITEREFLodge2009 (help)
  7. ^ Collins & Mees (1990), p. 93. sfnp error: no target: CITEREFCollinsMees1990 (help)
  8. Grønnum (2005), p. 154.
  9. Ladefoged, Peter; Johnson, Keith (3 January 2014). A Course in Phonetics. Cengage Learning. ISBN 978-1-305-17718-5.
  10. McDonough, Joyce (2003). The Navajo Sound System. Cambridge: Kluwer. ISBN 1-4020-1351-5.
  11. Laver, John (1994). Principles of Phonetics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 257–258. ISBN 0-521-45655-X.
  12. Henry Y., Chang (2000). 噶瑪蘭語參考語法 [Kavalan Grammar]. Taipei: 遠流 (Yuan-Liou). pp. 43–45. ISBN 9573238985.
  13. Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996), p. 203.
  14. Blau (2010:77)
  15. ^ Blau (2010:69)
  16. Rendsburg (1997:73)
  17. Helge, Fauskanger. "Sindarin – the Noble Tongue". Ardalambion. Retrieved 2 January 2019.
  18. Helge, Fauskanger. "Quenya Course". Ardalambion. Retrieved 2 January 2019.
  19. Maddieson & Wright (1995), p. 47.
  20. ^ Sadowsky et al. (2013), pp. 88, 91.
  21. Kristoffersen (2000), p. 79.
  22. Vanvik (1979), p. 36.
  23. Oftedal (1956), p. 99. sfnp error: no target: CITEREFOftedal1956 (help)
  24. Jansen (2010), p. 38.
  25. Tuttle (2008), p. 464.
  26. Gippert (2000).
  27. Dellert et al. (2020).
  28. Abdel-Massih (2011), p. 20.
  29. Krishnamurti (2003), p. 77.
  30. Lin (2018), p. 128.
  31. ^ Grønnum (2005), pp. 154–155.
  32. Blench, Roger. "Bura Dictionary" (PDF). Bura Dictionary. Retrieved 14 September 2024.
  33. Miyaoka (2012), p. 52.
  34. Uchihara (2016), p. 42.
  35. Uchihara (2016), p. 45.
  36. Gordon, Munro & Ladefoged (2002), p. 287.
  37. Taishanese Dictionary & Resources
  38. Li (1946), p. 398.
  39. Dunn (1999), p. 43.
  40. Maddieson et al. (1993), p. 27.
  41. Maddieson et al. (1993), p. 41.
  42. Coleman (1976), p. 8.
  43. Krauss (2016), p. 167.
  44. Salminen (2007), p. 365.
  45. Stefanelli (2019), p. 30.
  46. Sands, Maddieson & Ladefoged (1993), p. 68.
  47. Enrico (2003), p. 10.
  48. Galloway (1977), pp. 2–3.
  49. Pan (2012), pp. 22–23.
  50. Pan (2012), p. 169.
  51. Ostapirat (2008), p. 625.
  52. Yuan (1994), pp. 1–2.
  53. Kuipers (1960), p. 18.
  54. Wilde, Christopher P. (2016). "Gamale Kham phonology revisited, with Devanagari-based orthography and lexicon". Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society. hdl:1885/109195. ISSN 1836-6821.
  55. Lai, Yunfan (June 2013b). La morphologie affixale du lavrung wobzi (Master's thesis) (in French). Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris III.
  56. Van Eijk (1997), p. 2.
  57. Van Eijk (1997), p. 64.
  58. Beck (1999), p. 2.
  59. Svantesson et al. (2005), pp. 30–33.
  60. Martin (2011), p. 47.
  61. Endresen & Simonsen (2000), p. 246.
  62. Edmondson, Esling & Lama (2017), p. 88.
  63. Newman (1947), p. 129.
  64. Montler (1986).
  65. Liljegren (2009), p. 34.
  66. Liljegren (2009), p. 31.
  67. Liljegren (2009), p. 36.
  68. Tench (2007), p. 228.
  69. Krishnamurti (2003), p. 66.
  70. Кримський Агатангел Юхимович; Синявський О.; Михальчук Костянтин Петрович (1841–1914); Курило Олена Борисівна; Гладкий П.; Бузук П.; Расторгуєв П.; Рудницький Є.; Ahatanhel Krymsky (1929). Український діялектологічний збірник. Кн. I–II.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  71. Wei (2006), p. 14.
  72. Hannahs (2013), p. 18.
  73. Le Doeuff (2020), p. 6.
  74. ^ Chirkova & Chen (2013), pp. 365, 367–368.
  75. ^ Chirkova, Chen & Kocjančič Antolík (2013), pp. 382–383.
  76. "Yurok consonants". Yurok Language Project. UC Berkeley. Retrieved 15 April 2021.
  77. Poulos & Msimang (1998), p. 480.
  78. Taff et al. (2001), p. 234.
  79. ^ Basbøll (2005), pp. 65–66.
  80. ^ Asu & Teras (2009), p. 368.
  81. Árnason (2011), p. 124.
  82. Árnason (2011), p. 110.
  83. Aikio & Ylikoski (2022), p. 154.
  84. ^ Aquino (2019), p. 228.
  85. ^ Netto (2018), p. 127.
  86. ^ Danyenko & Vakulenko (1995), p. 10.
  87. ^ Zimmer & Orgun (1999), pp. 154–155.
  88. Howe, Darin (2003). Segmental Phonology. University of Calgary. p. 22.
  89. Heselwood (2013) Phonetic transcription in theory and practice, p 122–123
  90. Janet Watson (January 2011). "Lateral fricatives and lateral emphatics in southern Saudi Arabia and Mehri". academia.edu.
  91. Watson, Janet (January 2013). "Lateral reflexes of Proto-Semitic D and Dh in Al-Rubūʽah dialect, south-west Saudi Arabic: Electropalatographic and acoustic evidence". Nicht Nur mit Engelszungen: Beiträge zur Semitischen Dialektologie: Festschrift für Werner Arnold.
  92. Younger speakers distinguish between voiceless for emotional pain and voiced ]] for physical pain.
  93. Joshua M Jensen, Karl Pentzlin, 2012-02-08, Proposal to encode a Latin Capital Letter L with Belt
  94. "Unicode Character 'LATIN CAPITAL LETTER L WITH BELT' (U+A7AD)". www.fileformat.info. FileFormat.Info. Retrieved 20 June 2020.

References

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Pulmonic consonants

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