| Voiceless alveolar lateral fricative | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ɬ | |||
| IPA Number | 148 | ||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity (decimal) | ɬ | ||
| Unicode (hex) | U+026C | ||
| X-SAMPA | K | ||
| Braille |   | ||
| |||
| Audio sample | |||
| Voiceless alveolar lateral approximant | |
|---|---|
| l̥ | |
| IPA Number | 155 402A |
| Encoding | |
| X-SAMPA | l_0 |
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. 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".
Some scholars also posit the voiceless alveolar lateral approximant distinct from the fricative. The approximant may be represented in the IPA as ⟨l̥⟩.
Features[edit]
Features of the voiceless alveolar lateral fricative:[citation needed]
- 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 lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.
Occurrence[edit]
The sound is fairly common among indigenous languages of the Americas, such as Nahuatl and Navajo,[1] and in North Caucasian languages, such as Avar.[2] 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.[3]
The sound is rare in European languages outside the Caucasus, but it is found notably in Welsh in which it is written ⟨ll⟩.[4] 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 from /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,[5] 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.[6][7] In all Jewish reading traditions, /ɬ/ and /s/ have merged completely, but in Samaritan Hebrew /ɬ/ has instead merged into /ʃ/.[6]
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).[8][9] 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[edit]
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mapudungun[10] | kagüḻ | [kɜˈɣɘɬ̪] | 'phlegm that is spit' | Interdental; possible utterance-final allophone of /l̪/.[10] | |
| Norwegian | Trondheim dialect[11] | sælt | [s̪aɬ̪t̪] | 'sold' | Laminal denti-alveolar; allophone of /l/. Also described as an approximant.[12] See Norwegian phonology |
| Turkish[13] | yol | [ˈjo̞ɫ̪̊] | 'way' | Devoiced allophone of velarized dental /ɫ/, frequent finally and before voiceless consonants.[13] See Turkish phonology | |
Alveolar[edit]
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ahtna | dzeł | [tsɛɬ] | 'mountain' | ||
| Aleut | Atkan dialect | hlax̂ | [ɬɑχ] | 'boy' | |
| Amis | Southern dialect | kudiwis | [kuɬiwis] | 'rabbit' | |
| Avar | лъабго | [ˈɬabɡo] | 'three' | ||
| Basay | lanum | [ɬanum] | 'water' | ||
| Berber | Ait Seghrouchen | altu | [æˈɬʊw] | 'not yet' | Allophone of /lt/ |
| Brahui | teł | [t̪e:ɬ] | 'scorpion' | Contrasts /l ɬ/.[14] | |
| Bunun | Isbukun | ludun | [ɬuɗun] | 'mountain' | |
| Bura[15] | [example needed] | Contrasts with [ɮ] and [ʎ̝̊].[15] | |||
| Central Alaskan Yup'ik | qelta | [qəɬta] | 'fish scale' | Voiced [l] is rare; before voiced sounds, written as ll. | |
| Cherokee | Some speakers | ᎥᏝ | [ə̃ʔɬa] | 'no' | Corresponds to [tɬ] in the speech of most speakers |
| Chickasaw | lhinko | [ɬiŋko] | 'to be fat' | ||
| Chinese | Taishanese[16] | 三 | [ɬam˧] | 'three' | Corresponds to [s] in Standard Cantonese |
| Pinghua | |||||
| Pu-Xian Min | 沙 | [ɬua˥˧˧] | 'sand' | ||
| Chipewyan | łue | [ɬue] | 'fish' | ||
| Chukchi | ԓевыт | [ɬeβət] | 'head' | ||
| Creek (Mvskoke) | rakkē | [ɬakkiː] | 'big' | Historically transcribed thl or tl by English speakers | |
| Danish | Standard[17] | plads | [ˈpl̥æs] | 'square' | Before /l/, aspiration of /p, t, k/ is realized as devoicing of /l/.[17] See Danish phonology |
| Dahalo | [ʡáɬi] | 'fat' | |||
| Dogrib | ło | [ɬo] | 'smoke' | ||
| Estonian[18] | mahl | [mɑ̝hːl̥] | 'juice' | Word-final allophone of /l/ after /t, s, h/.[18] See Estonian phonology | |
| Eyak | qeł | [qʰɛʔɬ] | 'woman' | ||
| Fali | [paɬkan] | 'shoulder' | |||
| Faroese | hjálp | [jɔɬp] | 'help' | ||
| Forest Nenets | хару | [xaɬʲu] | 'rain' | Forest Nenets has both plain /ɬ/ and palatalized /ɬʲ/ | |
| Greenlandic | Kalaallisut | [kalaːɬːisut] | 'Greenlandic' | Realization of geminated /l/ | |
| Hadza | sleme | [ɬeme] | 'man' | ||
| Haida | tla'únhl | [tɬʰʌʔʊ́nɬ] | 'six' | ||
| Halkomelem | ɬ'eqw | [ɬeqw] | 'wet' | ||
| Hla'alua | hla | [ɬɑ] | 'and' | ||
| Hlai | Has Hlai | hla | 'fish' | ||
| Hmong | hli |  [ɬi] (help·info)
|
'moon' | ||
| Icelandic | hlýr | [l̥iːr̥] | 'warm' | Usually transcribed in IPA as /l̥/. See Icelandic phonology. | |
| Inuktitut | akłak | [akɬak] | 'grizzly bear' | See Inuit phonology | |
| Kabardian | лъы | [ɬə] (help·info)
|
'blood' | ||
| Kaska | tsį̄ł | [tsʰĩːɬ] | 'axe' | ||
| Kham | Gamale Kham[19] | ह्ला | [ɬɐ] | 'leaf' | |
| Khroskyabs [20] | ? | [ɬ-sá] | 'kill' (causative) | ||
| Lushootseed | łukʷał | [ɬukʷaɬ] | 'sun' | ||
| Mapudungun[10] | kaül | [kɜˈɘɬ] | 'a different song' | Possible utterance-final allophone of /l/.[10] | |
| Mochica | paxllær | [paɬøɾ] | Phaseolus lunatus | ||
| Moloko | sla | [ɬa] | 'cow' | ||
| Mongolian | лхагва | [ˈɬaw̜ɐk] | 'Wednesday' | Only in loanwords from Tibetan;[21] here from ལྷག་པ (lhag-pa) | |
| Nahuatl | āltepētl | [aːɬˈtɛpɛːt͡ɬ] | 'city' | Allophone of /l/ | |
| Navajo | łaʼ | [ɬaʔ] | 'some' | See Navajo phonology | |
| Nisga'a | hloks | [ɬoks] | 'sun' | ||
| Norwegian | Trøndersk | tatl / tasl | [tʰɑɬ] | 'sissiness' | See Norwegian phonology |
| Nuxalk | lhm | [ɬm] | 'to stand' | ||
| Saanich | ȽNIṈEȽ | [ɬníŋəɬ] | 'we, us' | ||
| Saaroa | rahli | [raɬi] | 'chief' | ||
| Sahaptin | łp’úł | [ˈɬpʼuɬ] | 'tears' | ||
| Sandawe | lhaa | [ɬáː] | 'goat' | ||
| Sassarese | morthu | [ˈmoɬtu] (help·info)
|
'dead' | ||
| Sawi | ɬo | [ɬo] | 'three' | Developed out of the earlier tr consonant clusters[22] | |
| Shuswap | ɬept | [ɬept] | 'fire is out' | ||
| Sotho | ho hlahloba | [ho ɬɑɬɔbɑ] | 'to examine' | See Sotho phonology | |
| St’át’imcets | lhésp | [ɬə́sp] | 'rash' | ||
| Swedish | Jämtlandic | kallt | [kaɬt] | 'cold' | See Swedish phonology |
| Taos | łiwéna | [ɬìˈwēnæ] | 'wife' | See Taos phonology | |
| Tera[23] | tleebi | [ɬè̞ːbi] | 'side' | ||
| Thao | kilhpul | [kiɬpul] | 'star' | ||
| Tlingit | lingít | [ɬɪ̀nkɪ́tʰ] | 'Tlingit' | ||
| Toda | kał | [kaɬ] | 'to learn' | Contrasts /l ɬ ɭ ɭ̊˔ (ꞎ)/.[24] | |
| Ukrainian[25] | смисл | [s̪mɪs̪l̥] | 'sense' | Word-final allophone of /l/ after voiceless consonants.[25] See Ukrainian phonology | |
| Tsez | лъи | [ɬi] (help·info)
|
'water' | ||
| Vietnamese | Vietnamese language in China[26] | slỉu, slí, slạt | [ɬiu˧], [ɬi˥], [ɬat8] | '小（small）', '师（expert）', '術(Technique)', Loanword from Chinese Dialect. | See Vietnamese phonology |
| Welsh | llall | [ɬaːɬ] | '(the) other' | See Welsh phonology | |
| Xhosa | sihlala | [síˈɬaːla] | 'we stay' | ||
| Xumi | Lower[27] | [ʁul̥o˦] | 'head' | Described as an approximant. Contrasts with the voiced /l/.[27][28] | |
| Upper[28] | [bə˦l̥ä̝˦] | 'to open a lock' | |||
| Yi | ꆧꁨ hlop-bbop | [ɬo˧˩bo˧˩] | 'moon' | ||
| Yurok[29] | kerhl | [kɚɬ] | 'earring' | ||
| Zulu | isihlahla | [isíˈɬaːɬa] | 'tree' | ||
| Zuni | asdemła | [ʔastemɬan] | 'ten' | ||
Alveolar approximant[edit]
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southern Nambikwara[30] | [haˈlawl̥u] | 'cane toad'[30] | Suffered unvoicing process from [l].[30] | ||
| Pipil[31] | [example needed] | Has been removed from some obsolescent dialects.[31] | |||
Semitic languages[edit]
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 | ش | š |  |
š | שׂ | s | ܫ | s | ሠ | ś |
Among Semitic languages, the sound still exists in contemporary Soqotri[citation needed] and Mehri.[32] In Ge'ez, it is written with the letter Śawt.[citation needed]
Capital letter[edit]
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.[33][34]
See also[edit]
- Voiced dental and alveolar lateral fricatives
- Voiceless alveolar lateral affricate
- Index of phonetics articles
Notes[edit]
- ^ McDonough, Joyce (2003). The Navajo Sound System. Cambridge: Kluwer. ISBN 1-4020-1351-5.
- ^ Laver, John (1994). Principles of Phonetics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 257–258. ISBN 0-521-45655-X.
- ^ Henry Y., Chang (2000). 噶瑪蘭語參考語法 [Kavalan Grammar]. Taipei: 遠流 (Yuan-Liou). pp. 43–45. ISBN 9573238985.
- ^ Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996), p. 203.
- ^ Blau (2010:77)
- ^ a b Blau (2010:69)
- ^ Rendsburg (1997:73)
- ^ Helge, Fauskanger. "Sindarin – the Noble Tongue". Ardalambion. Retrieved 2 January 2019.
- ^ Helge, Fauskanger. "Quenya Course". Ardalambion. Retrieved 2 January 2019.
- ^ a b c d Sadowsky et al. (2013), pp. 88, 91.
- ^ Kristoffersen (2000), p. 79.
- ^ Vanvik (1979), p. 36.
- ^ a b Zimmer & Orgun (1999), pp. 154–155.
- ^ Krishnamurti (2003), p. 77.
- ^ a b Grønnum (2005), pp. 154–155.
- ^ Taishanese Dictionary & Resources
- ^ a b Basbøll (2005), pp. 65–66.
- ^ a b Asu & Teras (2009), p. 368.
- ^ Wilde, Christopher P. (2016). "Gamale Kham phonology revisited, with Devanagari-based orthography and lexicon". Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society. ISSN 1836-6821.
- ^ Lai, Yunfan (June 2013b). La morphologie affixale du lavrung wobzi (Master's thesis) (in French). Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris III.
- ^ Svantesson et al. (2005), pp. 30–33.
- ^ Liljegren, Henrik (2009). "The Dangari Tongue of Choke and Machoke: Tracing the proto-language of Shina enclaves in the Hindu Kush". Acta Orientalia (70): 7–62.
- ^ Tench (2007), p. 228.
- ^ Krishnamurti (2003), p. 66.
- ^ a b Danyenko & Vakulenko (1995), p. 10.
- ^ 中国京语的变異 韦树关
- ^ a b Chirkova & Chen (2013), pp. 365, 367–368.
- ^ a b Chirkova, Chen & Kocjančič Antolík (2013), pp. 382–383.
- ^ "Yurok consonants". Yurok Language Project. UC Berkeley. Retrieved 15 April 2021.
- ^ a b c Netto (2018), p. 127.
- ^ a b Aquino (2019), p. 228.
- ^ Howe, Darin (2003). Segmental Phonology. University of Calgary. p. 22.
- ^ Joshua M Jensen, Karl Pentzlin, 2012-02-08, Proposal to encode a Latin Capital Letter L with Belt
- ^ "Unicode Character 'LATIN CAPITAL LETTER L WITH BELT' (U+A7AD)". www.fileformat.info. FileFormat.Info. Retrieved 20 June 2020.
References[edit]
- Asu, Eva Liina; Teras, Pire (2009). "Estonian". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 39 (3): 367–372. doi:10.1017/s002510030999017x.
- Basbøll, Hans (2005). The Phonology of Danish. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-203-97876-5.
- Blau, Joshua (2010). Phonology and Morphology of Biblical Hebrew. Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns. ISBN 978-1-57506-129-0.
- Chirkova, Katia; Chen, Yiya (2013). "Xumi, Part 1: Lower Xumi, the Variety of the Lower and Middle Reaches of the Shuiluo River". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 43 (3): 363–379. doi:10.1017/S0025100313000157.
- Chirkova, Katia; Chen, Yiya; Kocjančič Antolík, Tanja (2013). "Xumi, Part 2: Upper Xumi, the Variety of the Upper Reaches of the Shuiluo River". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 43 (3): 381–396. doi:10.1017/S0025100313000169.
- Danyenko, Andrii; Vakulenko, Serhii (1995). Ukrainian. Lincom Europa. ISBN 9783929075083.
- Grønnum, Nina (2005). Fonetik og fonologi, Almen og Dansk (3rd ed.). Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag. ISBN 87-500-3865-6.
- Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju (2003). The Dravidian Languages. Cambridge Language Surveys (1 ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-77111-5.
- Kristoffersen, Gjert (2000). The Phonology of Norwegian. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-823765-5.
- Rendsburg, Gary A. (1997). "Ancient Hebrew Phonology". In Kaye, Alan (ed.). Phonologies of Asia and Africa. Eisenbrauns. pp. 65–83. ISBN 978-1-57506-019-4. Archived from the original on 20 July 2011.
- Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 978-0-631-19815-4.
- Sadowsky, Scott; Painequeo, Héctor; Salamanca, Gastón; Avelino, Heriberto (2013). "Mapudungun". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 43 (1): 87–96. doi:10.1017/S0025100312000369.
- Svantesson, Jan-Olof; Tsendina, Anna; Mukhanova Karlsson, Anastasia; Franzen, Vivan (2005). The phonology of Mongolian. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0199260176.
- Tench, Paul (2007). "Tera". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 37 (1): 228–234. doi:10.1017/s0025100307002952.
- Vanvik, Arne (1979). Norsk fonetikk. Oslo: Universitetet i Oslo. ISBN 82-990584-0-6.
- Zimmer, Karl; Orgun, Orhan (1999). "Turkish". Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 154–158. ISBN 0-521-65236-7.
- Netto, Luiz Antonio de Souza (2018). Fonologia do grupo Nambikwára do Campo (Master's degree thesis) (in Brazilian Portuguese). Recife: Federal University of Pernambuco. p. 127.
- Aquino, Letícia (2019). "Campbell, L. and Muntzel, M. 1989. As Consequências estruturais da morte de línguas". Revista Brasileira de Linguística Antropológica. 11 (2): 228. doi:10.26512/rbla.v11i02.28820.
Further reading[edit]
- Beth am y llall? John Wells's phonetic blog, 1 July 2009. (How the British phonetician John Wells would teach the sound [ɬ].)
- A chance to share more than just some sounds of languages walesonline.co.uk, 3 May 2012 (Article by Dr Paul Tench including information on transcribing [ɬ] in Chadic languages.)
External links[edit]
- List of languages with [ɬ] on PHOIBLE
- List of languages with [l̥] on PHOIBLE
