PHONETICS MANUAL.indd - HumBox

(1) the velum is raised (as it is for all consonants except nasals)
(2) the vocal folds are vibrating
(3) the blade of the tongue is closed tightly against the alveolum (or occasionally
the front of the tongue against the hard palate)
(4) the side of the tongue is grooved, so that the air leaves through the corner of
the mouth.
Condition 3 means that the point of articulation is alveolar (or palatal). But, uniquely
among consonants, the air escapes “along the side” (condition 4), so the manner of
articulation is said to be LATERAL.
Whether the air flows out through the right-hand corner of the lips or the left-hand
corner, or even through both corners (i.e. with a groove on either side of the tongue)
is something that varies from one individual to another, irrespective of the language
being spoken. So you can carry on using whichever side you’re used to. (Indeed it’s
quite difficult to produce a lateral using the opposite side!)
Laterals are usually alveolar, but Hispanists will have met a palatal lateral in words like
llama or calle. The IPA symbol is [˘], and, as the tongue position is similar to that for
the high front semi-vowel [j], the effect is not unlike that of [lj] in English value. In
fact there is a strong tendency in Spanish to replace [˘] by [j] altogether, so that pollo
(“chicken”) and poyo (“bench”) fall together as [pojo] — or even as [poZo] (see 4.05).
Few speakers of English are aware of it, but there are actually two variants of [l]
in most English accents (including RP and American and Australian varieties). At
the end of a word or before a consonant (well, child), the [l], in addition to having
the features listed above, is pronounced with the back of the tongue raised slightly
towards the soft palate. But this doesn’t apply at the beginning of a word or after a
consonant, e.g. in like or play. It’s not easy to sense these tongue positions, but the
difference between the “dark” [] of well and the “clear” [l] of play shouldn’t be to
difficult to hear, particularly if you try to interchange them, i.e. to say well with the
[l] of play, and vice versa.
The technical term for “dark” [] is “velarized [l]”. When it’s important to register
the distinction, the IPA uses [l] for the clear variety and [] (“l tilde”) for the dark
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variety. But in ordinary transcription of English, [l] can be used for both clear and
dark versions.
This alternation between two types of [l] is a feature of English which is not shared by
standard French, German, Spanish or Italian. In each of these languages, [l] is always
clear and dark [] is unknown. For example the French word belle doesn’t sound like
the English bell as far as its final consonant is concerned. Similarly for German (voll,
etc.) and Spanish (arból, etc.). Using dark [] in these languages is a typical and all too
conspicuous feature of a British accent. (However, in languages like Dutch, Portuguese
or Russian, both types of [l] do occur, as in English, though they may be distributed
differently.)
58 Consonants