Alveolar lateral approximant

Alveolar lateral approximant
l
IPA number 155
Encoding
Entity (decimal) l
Unicode (hex) U+006C
X-SAMPA l
Kirshenbaum l
Sound

 

The alveolar lateral approximant, also known as clear l, is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents dental, alveolar, and postalveolar lateral approximants is ⟨l⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is l.

As a sonorant, lateral approximants are nearly always voiced. Voiceless lateral approximants are common in Tibeto-Burman languages, but uncommon elsewhere. In such cases, voicing typically starts about halfway through the hold of the consonant.

Contents

Features

Features of the alveolar lateral approximant:

Occurrence

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Abkhaz мгьал [mɡʲal] 'bread' See Abkhaz phonology
Albanian lis [lɪs] 'tree'
Arabic Standard[1] لا [laː] 'no' See Arabic phonology
Armenian լուսին 'moon'
Basque lan [lan] 'work'
Bulgarian лимон [limɔn] 'lemon'
Catalan tela [ˈtɛlə] 'fabric' May also be velarized. See Catalan phonology
Chechen лам/lam [laːm] 'mountain'
Chinese Cantonese /lou5 [lou˩˧˦] 'old' See Cantonese phonology
Mandarin /lǎo [lɑʊ˨˩˦] 'old' See Mandarin phonology
Czech lis [lɪs] 'press' See Czech phonology
Dutch leven [leːvə(n)] 'to live' See Dutch phonology
English let [lɛt] 'let' See English phonology
Finnish illalla [ilːɑlːɑ] 'at evening' See Finnish phonology
French il [il] 'he' See French phonology
Georgian[2] ლუდი [ludi] 'beer'
German Liebe [liːbə] 'love' See German phonology
Greek άλμα/álma [ˈalma] 'jump' See Modern Greek phonology
Hebrew לא [lo̞] 'no' See Modern Hebrew phonology
Hungarian elem [ɛlɛm] 'battery' See Hungarian phonology
Italian[3] letto [ˈlɛtto] 'bed' See Italian phonology
Kagayanen[4] ? [sala] 'living room'
Korean 물집/muljip [mult͡ɕ̤ip̚] 'blister' See Korean phonology
Malay lagi [laɡi] 'again'
Melpa[5] [lola] 'speak improperly'
Ngwe Njoagwi dialect [lɛ̀rɛ́] 'eye'
Norwegian liv [liːv] 'life' See Norwegian phonology
Pashto لس [ləs] 'ten'
Polish[6] pole 'field' See Polish phonology
Portuguese Brazilian lua [ˈluɐ] 'moon' See Portuguese phonology
Romanian alună [aˈlu.nə] 'hazelnut' See Romanian phonology
Russian клуч [klʲʉtɕ] 'key' Contrasts palatalized and velarized variants. See Russian phonology
Slovak[7] mľkvy [ˈml̩ːkʋɪ] 'silent' Syllabic form can be long or short
Spanish[8] hablar [aˈβ̞laɾ] 'to speak' See Spanish phonology
Swedish allt [alt] 'everything' See Swedish phonology
Tamil[9] புலி [puli] 'tiger' See Tamil phonology
Tibetan ལྷ་ས་ [l̥ásə] 'Lhasa' Contrasts voiced and voiceless lateral approximants
Ukrainian обличчя [ɔˈblɪt͡ʃʲːɑ] 'face' See Ukrainian phonology
Vietnamese[10] lửa [lɨə˧˩˧] 'fire' See Vietnamese phonology
West Frisian lyts [lit͡s] 'small' In complementary distribution with [ɫ]; occurs before [i] and [y]
Yi /la [la˧] 'come'
Zapotec Tilquiapan[11] lan [laŋ] 'soot'
Zulu[12] lala [lálà] 'sleep'

See also

References

Bibliography