An Introduction to French Pronunciation

112 The Consonants in Detail: (III) /r/, /l/ and the Nasals
dark l and the vowel /u/ or /υ/ do not sound very different
from one another and, in Cockney English, an /υ/ sound (as
in put /pυt/) is often substituted for dark l, with the result that
milk, tell, for example come to be pronounced [miυk], [tευ].
The important thing to remember is that a dark l is quite
unacceptable in French, so much so that if words such as
ville, telle, foule, molle, are pronounced with a very dark l
they could be unintelligible. The French l is, if anything, rather
‘clearer’, i.e. pronounced with the front of the tongue raised
somewhat closer to the palate, than the average English clear
l, but the difference is minimal and the use of an English clear
l is likely to pass more or less unnoticed.
16.2.3 Although, as mentioned above (16.2.1), the distinction
between clear and dark l is characteristic of English
as spoken in the south-east of England, this is not so of all
varieties of English. In particular, Americans and Scots are
likely to use a dark l (though not necessarily as dark a one as
that of speakers from south-east England) in all positions,
while English-speakers from Wales and Ireland may well use
a clear l in all positions.
16.2.4 On voiceless [s], see 16.5.
16.3 The Nasal Consonants /m/, /n/, // and /¡/
16.3.1 The bilabial nasal /m/
Apart from the fact that, as in the case of other consonants, it
is pronounced with greater tension, there is no significant
difference in most phonetic contexts between the French /m/
and its English equivalent.
On voiceless [t], see 16.6.
16.3.2 The dental nasal /n/
Note that French /n/, like the stops /t/ and /d/ (see 14.4.2), is
normally dental while English /n/, again like /t/ and /d/, is