Voiceless dental and alveolar lateral fricatives
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| Voiceless alveolar lateral fricative | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ɬ | |||
| IPA number | 148 | ||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity (decimal) | ɬ | ||
| Unicode (hex) | U+026C | ||
| X-SAMPA | K | ||
| Kirshenbaum | s<lat> | ||
| |||
| Listen | |||
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Not to be confused with the Voiceless alveolar lateral affricate, the Tibetan lh as in Lhasa
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 should not be confused with "l with tilde", [ɫ], which transcribes a different sound, the velarized alveolar lateral approximant. It should also be distinguished from a voiceless alveolar lateral approximant, although the fricative is sometimes incorrectly described as a "voiceless l", a description fitting only of the approximant.
Several Welsh names beginning with this sound (e.g. Llwyd /ɬʊɨd/, Llywelyn /ɬəˈwɛlɨn/) have been borrowed into English, where they either retain the Welsh ⟨ll⟩ spelling but are pronounced with an /l/ (Lloyd, Llewellyn), or are substituted with ⟨fl⟩ (pronounced /fl/) (Floyd, Fluellen).
Contents
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]
Although the sound is rare among European languages outside the Caucasus (being found notably in Welsh, where it is written ⟨ll⟩),[1] it is fairly common among indigenous languages of the Americas such as Nahuatl, Navajo,[2], and North Caucasian languages, such as Avar.[3] It is also found in African languages like Zulu, Asian languages like Chukchi and some Yue dialects like Taishanese, and several Formosan languages and a number of dialects in Taiwan.[4]
The sound is found in two artificial languages invented by J.R.R. Tolkien, Sindarin (inspired by Welsh) and Quenya.[5][6]
Dental or denti-alveolar[edit]
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mapudungun[7] | kagüḻ | [kɜˈɣɘɬ̪] | 'phlegm that is spit' | Interdental; possible utterance-final allophone of /l̪/.[7] | |
| Norwegian | Trondheim dialect[8] | sælt | [s̪aɬ̪t̪] | 'sold' | Laminal denti-alveolar; allophone of /l/. Also described as an approximant [l̪̊].[9] See Norwegian phonology |
Alveolar[edit]
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ahtna | dzeł | [tsəɬ] | 'mountain' | ||
| Aleut | Atkan dialect | hla | [ɬɑ] | '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/ |
| Bunun | Isbukun | ludun | [ɬuɗun] | 'mountain' | |
| Bura[10] | [example needed] | Contrasts with [ɮ] and [ʎ̝̊].[10] | |||
| Cherokee | Some speakers | ᎥᏝ | [ə̃ʔɬa] | 'no' | Corresponds to [tɬ] in the speech of most speakers |
| Chickasaw | lhinko | [ɬiŋko] | 'to be fat' | ||
| Chinese | Chinese, Yue, Taishanese[11] | 三 | [ɬam˧] | 'three' | |
| Puxian Min | 沙 | 'sand' | |||
| Chipewyan | łue | [ɬue] | 'fish' | ||
| Chukchi | ԓевыт | [ɬeβət] | 'head' | ||
| Circassian | плъыжь |  [pɬəʑ] (help·info)
|
'red' | ||
| Creek (Mvskoke) | rakkē | [ɬakkiː] | 'big' | Historically transcribed thl or tl by English speakers | |
| Dahalo | [ʡáɬi] | 'fat' | |||
| Dogrib | ło | [ɬo] | 'smoke' | ||
| 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 | illu | [iɬːu] | 'house' | Realization of geminated /l/ | |
| Hadza | sleme | [ɬeme] | 'man' | ||
| Haida | tla'únhl | [tɬʰʌʔʊ́nɬ] | 'six' | ||
| Halkomelem | ɬ'eqw | [ɬeqw] | 'wet' | ||
| Hebrew | Biblical Hebrew | שָׂטָן | [ɬɑtˤɑn] | 'Satan' | |
| Hla'alua | hla | [ɬɑ] | 'and' | ||
| Hmong | hli | [ɬi] (help·info)
|
'moon' | ||
| Icelandic | siglt | [sɪɬt] | 'have sailed' | ||
| Inuktitut | akłak | [akɬak] | 'grizzly bear' | See Inuit phonology | |
| Kabardian | лъы | [ɬə] (help·info)
|
'blood' | ||
| Kaska | tsį̄ł | [tsʰĩːɬ] | 'axe' | ||
| Khanty | Surgut dialect | ԓӓпәт | [ˈɬæpət] | 'seven' | Contrasts with palatalized /ɬʲ/. Corresponds to /l/ or /t/ in other dialects |
| Kazym dialect | ԓапәт | [ˈɬɑpət] | |||
| Lushootseed | łukʷał | [ɬukʷaɬ] | 'sun' | ||
| Mapudungun[7] | kaül | [kɜˈɘɬ] | 'a different song' | Possible utterance-final allophone of /l/.[7] | |
| Mochica | paxllær | [paɬøɾ] | Phaseolus lunatus | ||
| Moloko | sla | [ɬa] | 'cow' | ||
| 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 | ɬm | [ɬm] | 'to stand' | ||
| Saaroa | rahli | [raɬi] | 'chief' | ||
| Sahaptin | łp’úł | [ˈɬpʼuɬ] | 'tears' | ||
| Sandawe | lhaa | [ɬáː] | 'goat' | ||
| Sassarese | morthu | [ˈmoɬtu] (help·info)
|
'dead' | ||
| SENĆOŦEN | ȽNIṈEȽ | [ɬníŋəɬ] | 'we', 'us' | ||
| Shuswap | ɬept | [ɬept] | 'fire is out' | ||
| Sotho | ho hlahloba | [ho ɬɑɬɔbɑ] | 'to examine' | See Sotho phonology | |
| St’át’imcets | lhésp | [ɬə́sp] | 'rash' | ||
| Swedish | Jamtlandic | kallt | [kaɬt] | 'cold' | See Swedish phonology |
| Taos | łiwéna | [ɬìˈwēnæ] | 'wife' | See Taos phonology | |
| Tera[12] | tleebi | [ɬè̞ːbi] | 'side' | ||
| Thao | kilhpul | [kiɬpul] | 'star' | ||
| Tlingit | lingít | [ɬìnkít] | 'Tlingit' | ||
| Tsez | лъи | [ɬi] (help·info)
|
'water' | ||
| Welsh | llall | [ɬaːɬ] | '(the) other' | See Welsh phonology | |
| Yi | ꆧꁨ hlop-bbop | [ɬo˧˩bo˧˩] | 'moon' | ||
| Zulu | isihlahla | [isiˈɬaːɬa] | 'tree' | ||
| Zuni | asdemła | [ʔastemɬan] | 'ten' | ||
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 |
Amongst Semitic languages, the sound still exists in contemporary Soqotri[citation needed] and Mehri.[13] In Ge'ez, it is written with the letter Śawt.[citation needed]
Artificial languages[edit]
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quenya | hlócë | ['ɬɔːkɛ] | 'snake, serpent' |
| Sindarin | lhô | [ɬɔː] | 'flood' |
See also[edit]
- Voiced dental and alveolar lateral fricatives
- Voiceless alveolar lateral affricate
- Index of phonetics articles
Notes[edit]
- ^ Ladefoged, Peter (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. p. 203. ISBN 0-631-19815-6.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Helge, Fauskanger. "Sindarin - the Noble Tongue". Ardalambion. Retrieved 2019-01-02.
- ^ Helge, Fauskanger. "Quenya Course". Ardalambion. Retrieved 2019-01-02.
- ^ a b c d Sadowsky et al. (2013:88, 91)
- ^ Kristoffersen (2000:79)
- ^ Vanvik (1979:36)
- ^ a b Grønnum (2005:154–155)
- ^ Taishanese Dictionary & Resources
- ^ Tench (2007:228)
- ^ Howe, Darin (2003). Segmental Phonology. University of Calgary. p. 22.
References[edit]
- Grønnum, Nina (2005), Fonetik og fonologi, Almen og Dansk (3rd ed.), Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag, ISBN 87-500-3865-6
- Kristoffersen, Gjert (2000), The Phonology of Norwegian, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-823765-5
- Sadowsky, Scott; Painequeo, Héctor; Salamanca, Gastón; Avelino, Heriberto (2013), "Mapudungun", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 43 (1): 87–96, doi:10.1017/S0025100312000369
- 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
External links[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.)
