An Introduction to French Pronunciation

The Consonants in Detail: (III) /r/, /l/ and the Nasals 111
but, as it is not characteristic of French as spoken in Paris, it
should be avoided by foreigners whose ambition it is to speak
with a Parisian accent.
16.1.5 On voiceless [v], see 16.5.1.
16.1.6 On the use of /r/ to represent any kind of r, instead of
the strict IPA representation of the uvular fricative by /ʁ/, the
uvular rolled r by /r/, and the front rolled r by /r/, see 6.10.
16.2 The Lateral Consonant /l/
16.2.1 In English as spoken in the south of England there is
a marked difference between /l/ as pronounced before a vowel,
as in leaf, life, loss, slog, please, and /l/ as pronounced after
a vowel, as in all, feel, pool, old, or at the end of a word
after a stop, as in bottle, middle, people, hobble, tickle, niggle.
The l that occurs before a vowel is known as a ‘clear l’ and
the other as a ‘dark l’ (see 16.2.2) and it is important to
appreciate the distinction since, though the clear l is not very
different from a French l, the dark l is very different and
must be avoided when speaking French.
The point of articulation for both clear l and dark l in English
and for the French /l/ is the alveoli, i.e. the tip of the tongue
touches the alveoli while the air escapes around the sides of
the tongue (hence the term ‘lateral’). The principal difference
lies in the position of the remainder of the tongue (see 16.2.2).
16.2.2 For a clear l, the front of the tongue is raised towards,
but does not touch, the palate. For a dark l, while the point
of contact (between the tip of the tongue and the alveoli) is
the same, the back of the tongue is raised at the same time
towards the velum, in very much the same way as it is for the
vowel /u/ or the /υ/ of put /pυt/ or loud /laυd /. In fact, if you
say /u/ and, then, while modifying the position of the back of
the tongue as little as possible, touch the alveoli with the tip
of the tongue, you will produce a very markedly dark l. The