Voiceless dental, alveolar and postalveolar lateral approximants

The voiceless alveolar lateral approximant is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. The symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represent the dental, alveolar, and postalveolar lateral approximants are and , combinations of the letter for the voiced alveolar lateral approximant and a diacritic indicating voicelessness above or below the letter. The equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is l_0.

Voiceless alveolar lateral approximant
IPA Number155 402A
Encoding
X-SAMPAl_0
Voiceless postalveolar lateral approximant
l̠̊
Voiceless dental lateral approximant
l̪̊

Voiceless lateral approximants are common in Sino-Tibetan languages, but uncommon elsewhere.

Features

Features of the voiceless 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.
  • There are four specific variants of [l̥]:
    • Dental, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue at the upper teeth, termed respectively apical and laminal.
    • Denti-alveolar, which means it is articulated with the blade of the tongue at the alveolar ridge, and the tip of the tongue behind upper teeth.
    • 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.
    • Postalveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue behind 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 lateral consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream over the sides of the tongue, rather than down the middle.

Occurrence

Dental or denti-alveolar

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Khanty Surgut dialect ԓӓпәт [ˈl̥æpət] 'seven' Contrasts with palatalized /l̥ʲ/. Corresponds to /l/ or /t/ in other dialects
Kazym dialect ԓапәт [ˈl̥ɑpət]
Moksha калхне [ˈkal̥nʲæ] 'these fishes' Contrasts plain voiceless, plain voiced, palatalized voiceless and palatalized voiced versions.
Norwegian Trondheim dialect[1] lt [s̪al̪̊t̪] 'sold' Laminal denti-alveolar; allophone of /l/. Also described as a fricative [ɬ̪].[2] See Norwegian phonology
Kildin Sami пэӆтэ [ˈpel̥te] 'to scare' Three-dimensional contrast: voiced-voiceless, plain-palatalized, short-long, total eight [l]-like phonemes.
Turkish[3] yol [ˈjo̞ɫ̪̊] 'way' Velarized laminal denti-alveolar.[3] It is a frequent realization of /ɫ/ in word-final and preconsonantal positions.[4] See Turkish phonology

Alveolar

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Danish Standard[5] plads [ˈpl̥æs] 'square' Before /l/, aspiration of /p, t, k/ is realized as devoicing of /l/.[5] See Danish phonology
English[6] clean [kl̥iːn]  'clean'
Estonian[7] mahl [mɑ̝hːl̥] 'juice' Word-final allophone of /l/ after /t, s, h/.[7] See Estonian phonology
Tibetan ལྷ [l̥a] 'deity' Contrasts voiceless and voiced lateral approximants
Ukrainian[8] смисл [s̪mɪs̪l̥] 'sense' Word-final allophone of /l/ after voiceless consonants.[8] See Ukrainian phonology
Washo madukwáwLu [maduˈkwawl̥u] 'sunflower'
Xumi Lower[9] [RPʁul̥o] 'head' Contrasts with the voiced /l/.[9][10]
Upper[10] [EPbəl̥ɐ] 'to open a lock'

Postalveolar

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Turkish[3] dil [ˈd̪il̠̊ʲ] 'tongue' Palatalized.[3] It is a frequent realization of /l/ in word-final and preconsonantal positions.[4] See Turkish phonology

See also

  • Voiceless alveolar lateral fricative
  • Dental, alveolar and postalveolar lateral approximants

Notes

References

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