Voiceless dental and alveolar lateral fricatives

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 [ɬ], and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is K.

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

The symbol [ɬ] is called "belted l" and is distinct from "l with tilde", [ɫ], which transcribes a different sound – the velarized (or pharynɡealized) alveolar lateral approximant, often called "dark L".[1]

Some scholars also posit the voiceless alveolar lateral approximant distinct from the fricative. [2] More recent research distinguishes between "turbulent" and "laminar" airflow in the vocal tract.[3] Ball & Rahilly (1999) write 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 [l̥] and Li Fang-Kuei & William Baxter contrast apophonicaly the voiceless alveolar lateral approximant from its voiced counterpart in the reconstruction of Old Chinese.

Scholten (2000) includes the voiceless velarized alveolar lateral approximant [ɫ̥].

Features

Features of the voiceless alveolar lateral fricative:[4]

  • 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.
  • 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 lateral consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream over the sides of the tongue, rather than down the middle.
  • The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the intercostal muscles and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

The sound is fairly common among indigenous languages of the Americas, such as Nahuatl and Navajo,[5] and in North Caucasian languages, such as Avar.[6] 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.[7]

The sound is rare in European languages outside the Caucasus, but it is found notably in Welsh in which it is written ⟨ll⟩.[8] 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 [ɬ] is known based on comparative evidence since /ɬ/ is the corresponding Proto-Semitic phoneme and is still attested in Modern South Arabian languages,[9] 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.[10][11] In all Jewish reading traditions, /ɬ/ and /s/ have merged completely, but in Samaritan Hebrew /ɬ/ has instead merged into /ʃ/.[10]

The [ɬ] 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).[12][13] 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 [tipiɬ̪] 'bowl' Allophonic variation of word-final and sometimes word-initial /ɮ̪/.[14]
Mapudungun[15] kagüḻ [kɜˈɣɘɬ̪] 'phlegm that is spit' Interdental; possible utterance-final allophone of /l̪/.[15]
Norwegian Trondheim dialect[16] sælt [s̪aɬ̪t̪] 'sold' Laminal denti-alveolar; allophone of /l/. Also described as an approximant.[17] See Norwegian phonology
Sahaptin [ɬḵʼɑm] 'moccasins' Contrasts approximant /l/.[18]

Alveolar
Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Adyghe аслъан [ʔasɬaːn] 'lion'
Ahtna[19] dzeł [tsɛɬ] 'mountain'
Avar[20] лъабго [ˈɬabɡo] 'three'[21]
Basay lanum [ɬanum] 'water'
Berber Ait Seghrouchen altu [æˈɬʊw] 'not yet' Allophone of /lt/.[22]
Brahui teł [t̪e:ɬ] 'scorpion' Contrasts /l ɬ/.[23]
Bunun Isbukun dialect ludun [ɬuɗun] 'mountain' Voiceless allophone of /l/ among some speakers.[24]
Bura[25] Contrasts with [ɮ] and [ʎ̝̊].[25]
Central Alaskan Yup'ik[26] talliq [taɬeq] 'arm'
Cherokee Oklahoma Cherokee tlha, kiihli [tɬá]~[ɬá], [ɡiːl̥í]~[ɡiːɬí] 'not', 'dog' In free variation with affricate /tɬ/ among some speakers.[27] Also an alternative pronunciation of voiceless lateral approximant [l̥], a realization of cluster /hl/.[28]
Chickasaw[29] lhipa [ɬipa] 'it is dry'
Chinese Taishanese[30] 三 [ɬäm˧] 'three' Corresponds to [s] in Standard Cantonese
Pinghua
Pu-Xian Min 沙 [ɬua˥˧˧] 'sand'
Chipewyan[31] łue [ɬue] 'fish'
Chukchi[32] [p(ə)ɬekət] 'shoes'
Dahalo[33] [ɬunno] 'stew' Contrasts palatal /ʎ̝̊/ and labialized /ɬʷ/.[34]
Dogrib ło [ɬo] 'smoke' Contrasts voiced /ɮ/.[35]
Eyak qeł [qʰɛʔɬ] 'woman' Contrasts approximant /l/.[36]
Fali [paɬkan] 'shoulder'
Forest Nenets хару [xaɬʲu] 'rain' Contrasts palatalized /ɬʲ/.[37]
Greenlandic illu [iɬɬu] 'house' Realization of underlying geminate /l/.[38] See Greenlandic phonology
Hadza[39] sleme [ɬeme] 'man'
Haida[40] tla'únhl [tɬʰʌʔʊ́nɬ] 'six'
Halkomelem[41] ɬ'eqw [ɬeqw] 'wet'
Hla'alua[42] lhatenge[43] [ɬɑtɨŋɨ] 'vegetable'
Hlai [ɬa⁵³]~[ɬa³³]][44] 'fish' Contrasts voiced approximant /l/.[45]
Hmong hli [ɬi]ⓘ 'moon'
Inuktitut akłak [akɬak] 'grizzly bear' See Inuit phonology
Kabardian лъы [ɬə]ⓘ 'blood' Contrasts voiced /ɮ/ and glottalic /ɬʼ/.[46]
Kaska tsį̄ł [tsʰĩːɬ] 'axe'
Kham Gamale Kham[47] ह्ला [ɬɐ] 'leaf'
Khroskyabs[48]  ? [ɬ-sá] 'kill' (causative)
Lillooet[49] lhésp [ɬə́sp] 'rash'[50]
Lushootseed[51] łukʷał [ɬukʷaɬ] 'sun'
Mapudungun[15] kaül [kɜˈɘɬ] 'a different song' Possible utterance-final allophone of /l/.[15]
Mochica paxllær [paɬøɾ] Phaseolus lunatus
Moloko sla [ɬa] 'cow'
Mongolian лхагва [ˈɬaw̜ɐk] 'Wednesday' Only in loanwords from Tibetan;[52] here from ལྷག་པ (lhag-pa)
Muscogee[53] páɬko [pəɬko] 'grape'
Nahuatl āltepētl [aːɬˈtɛpɛːt͡ɬ] 'city' Allophone of /l/
Navajo łaʼ [ɬaʔ] 'some' See Navajo phonology
Nisga'a hloks [ɬoks] 'sun'
Norwegian Trøndersk tatlete [ˈtɑɬɑt] 'weak', 'small' Contrasts alveolar approximant /l/, apical postalveolar approximant /ɭ/, and laminal postalveolar approximant /l̠/.[54]
Nuosu [ɬu³³] 'to fry' Contrasts approximant /l/.[55]
Nuxalk płt [pɬt] 'thick' Contrasts with affricates /t͡ɬʰ/ and /t͡ɬʼ/, and approximant /l/.[56]
Saanich[57] Ƚel [ɬəl] 'splash'
Sandawe lhaa [ɬáː] 'goat'
Sassarese morthu [ˈmoɬtu]ⓘ 'dead'
Sawi ɬo [ɬo] 'three'[58] Contrasts approximant /l/.[59] Developed from earlier *tr- consonant cluster.[60]
Shuswap ɬept [ɬept] 'fire is out'
Sotho ho hlahloba [ho ɬɑɬɔbɑ] 'to examine' See Sotho phonology
Swedish Jämtlandic kallt [kaɬt] 'cold' Also occurs in dialects in Dalarna and Härjedalen. See Swedish phonology
Taos łiwéna [ɬìˈwēnæ] 'wife' See Taos phonology
Tera[61] tleebi [ɬè̞ːbi] 'side'
Thao kilhpul [kiɬpul] 'star'
Tlingit lingít [ɬɪ̀nkɪ́tʰ] 'Tlingit'
Toda kał [kaɬ] 'to learn' Contrasts /l ɬ ɭ ɭ̊˔ (ꞎ)/.[62]
Ukrainian Poltava subdialect[63] молоко [mɔɬɔˈkɔ] 'milk' Occurs only in Poltava subdialect of Central Dniprovian dialect.
Tsez лъи [ɬi]ⓘ 'water'
Vietnamese Gin dialect[64] 小 [ɬiu˧] 'small'
Welsh[65] tegell [ˈtɛɡɛɬ] 'kettle' See Welsh phonology
Xhosa[66] sihlala [síˈɬaːla] 'we stay'
Xumi Lower[67] [ʁul̥o˦] 'head' Described as an approximant. Contrasts with the voiced /l/.[67][68]
Upper[68] [bə˦l̥ä̝˦] 'to open a lock'
Yurok[69] kerhl [kɚɬ] 'earring'
Zulu ihlahla [iɬaɬa] 'twig' Contrasts voiced /ɮ/.[70]
Zuni asdemła [ʔastemɬan] 'ten'

Alveolar approximant
Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Aleut Western Aleut hlax̂ [l̥aχ] 'boy' Contrasts with voiced /l/. Merged in Eastern Aleut.[71]
Burmese လှ [l̥a̰] 'beautiful' Contrasts with voiced /l/.
Danish Standard[72] plads [ˈpl̥æs] 'square' Before /l/, aspiration of /p, t, k/ is realized as devoicing of /l/.[72] See Danish phonology
Estonian[73] mahl [mɑ̝hːl̥] 'juice' Word-final allophone of /l/ after /t, s, h/.[73] See Estonian phonology
Faroese hjálpa [jɔl̥pa] 'to help' Allophone of /l/ before fortis plosives.[74]
Icelandic hlaða [l̥aːða] 'warm' Contrasts with voiced /l/. Allophonic variation of /l/ before fortis plosives.[75] See Icelandic phonology.
Northern Sámi Eastern Inland bálkká [pæl̥kæ] 'salary' Allophone of underlying cluster /lh/[76]
Pipil[77] Contrasted voiced /l/ in some now-extinct dialects.[77]
Southern Nambikwara[78] [haˈlawl̥u] 'cane toad'[78] Allophonic variation of /l/.[78]
Tibetan Lhasa [l̥asa] 'Lhasa, capital of Tibet'
Ukrainian Standard[79] смисл [s̪mɪs̪l̥] 'sense' Word-final allophone of /l/ after voiceless consonants.[79] See Ukrainian phonology

Velarized alveolar approximant
LanguageWordIPAMeaningNotes
English Some Philadelphia speakers[80]plus[pɫ̥ɯs]'plus'See English phonology[80]
Turkish[81] yol [ˈjo̞ɫ̪̊] 'way' Devoiced allophone of velarized dental /ɫ/, frequent finally and before voiceless consonants.[81] 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 [ʃ], Hebrew [s]:

Proto-Semitic Akkadian Arabic Phoenician Hebrew Aramaic Ge'ez
ś s̠ شš šš שׂ‎s ܫs ሠś

Among Semitic languages, the sound still exists in contemporary Soqotri and Mehri.[82] In Ge'ez, it is written with the letter Śawt.

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.[83][84]

See also

Notes
  1. "Dark L". home.cc.umanitoba.ca. Retrieved 7 March 2023.
  2. Pike (1943), pp. 71, 138–9.
  3. Shadle (2000), pp. 37–8.
  4. Ladefoged, Peter; Johnson, Keith (3 January 2014). A Course in Phonetics. Cengage Learning. ISBN 978-1-305-17718-5.
  5. McDonough, Joyce (2003). The Navajo Sound System. Cambridge: Kluwer. ISBN 1-4020-1351-5.
  6. Laver, John (1994). Principles of Phonetics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 257–258. ISBN 0-521-45655-X.
  7. Henry Y., Chang (2000). 噶瑪蘭語參考語法 [Kavalan Grammar]. Taipei: 遠流 (Yuan-Liou). pp. 43–45. ISBN 9573238985.
  8. Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996), p. 203.
  9. Blau (2010:77)
  10. Blau (2010:69)
  11. Rendsburg (1997:73)
  12. Helge, Fauskanger. "Sindarin – the Noble Tongue". Ardalambion. Retrieved 2 January 2019.
  13. Helge, Fauskanger. "Quenya Course". Ardalambion. Retrieved 2 January 2019.
  14. Maddieson & Wright (1995), p. 47.
  15. Sadowsky et al. (2013), pp. 88, 91.
  16. Kristoffersen (2000), p. 79.
  17. Vanvik (1979), p. 36.
  18. Jansen (2010), p. 38.
  19. Tuttle (2008), p. 464.
  20. Gippert (2000).
  21. Dellert et al. (2020).
  22. Abdel-Massih (2011), p. 20.
  23. Krishnamurti (2003), p. 77.
  24. Lin (2018), p. 128.
  25. Grønnum (2005), pp. 154–155.
  26. Miyaoka (2012), p. 52.
  27. Uchihara (2016), p. 42.
  28. Uchihara (2016), p. 45.
  29. Gordon, Munro & Ladefoged (2002), p. 287.
  30. Taishanese Dictionary & Resources
  31. Li (1946), p. 398.
  32. Dunn (1999), p. 43.
  33. Maddieson et al. (1993), p. 27.
  34. Maddieson et al. (1993), p. 41.
  35. Coleman (1976), p. 8.
  36. Krauss (2016), p. 167.
  37. Salminen (2007), p. 365.
  38. Stefanelli (2019), p. 30.
  39. Sands, Maddieson & Ladefoged (1993), p. 68.
  40. Enrico (2003), p. 10.
  41. Galloway (1977), pp. 2–3.
  42. Pan (2012), pp. 22–23.
  43. Pan (2012), p. 169.
  44. Ostapirat (2008), p. 625.
  45. Yuan (1994), pp. 1–2.
  46. Kuipers (1960), p. 18.
  47. Wilde, Christopher P. (2016). "Gamale Kham phonology revisited, with Devanagari-based orthography and lexicon". Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society. ISSN 1836-6821.
  48. Lai, Yunfan (June 2013b). La morphologie affixale du lavrung wobzi (Master's thesis) (in French). Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris III.
  49. Van Eijk (1997), p. 2.
  50. Van Eijk (1997), p. 64.
  51. Beck (1999), p. 2.
  52. Svantesson et al. (2005), pp. 30–33.
  53. Martin (2011), p. 47.
  54. Endresen & Simonsen (2000), p. 246.
  55. Edmondson, Esling & Lama (2017), p. 88.
  56. Newman (1947), p. 129.
  57. Montler (1986).
  58. Liljegren (2009), p. 34.
  59. Liljegren (2009), p. 31.
  60. Liljegren (2009), p. 36.
  61. Tench (2007), p. 228.
  62. Krishnamurti (2003), p. 66.
  63. 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.
  64. Wei (2006), p. 14.
  65. Hannahs (2013), p. 18.
  66. Le Doeuff (2020), p. 6.
  67. Chirkova & Chen (2013), pp. 365, 367–368.
  68. Chirkova, Chen & Kocjančič Antolík (2013), pp. 382–383.
  69. "Yurok consonants". Yurok Language Project. UC Berkeley. Retrieved 15 April 2021.
  70. Poulos & Msimang (1998), p. 480.
  71. Taff et al. (2001), p. 234.
  72. Basbøll (2005), pp. 65–66.
  73. Asu & Teras (2009), p. 368.
  74. Árnason (2011), p. 124.
  75. Árnason (2011), p. 110.
  76. Aikio & Ylikoski (2022), p. 154.
  77. Aquino (2019), p. 228.
  78. Netto (2018), p. 127.
  79. Danyenko & Vakulenko (1995), p. 10.
  80. Gordon (2004), p. 290.
  81. Zimmer & Orgun (1999), pp. 154–155.
  82. Howe, Darin (2003). Segmental Phonology. University of Calgary. p. 22.
  83. Joshua M Jensen, Karl Pentzlin, 2012-02-08, Proposal to encode a Latin Capital Letter L with Belt
  84. "Unicode Character 'LATIN CAPITAL LETTER L WITH BELT' (U+A7AD)". www.fileformat.info. FileFormat.Info. Retrieved 20 June 2020.

References

Further reading
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