Voiceless dental, alveolar and postalveolar lateral approximants

The voiceless alveolar lateral approximant is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. The symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represent the dental, alveolar, and postalveolar lateral approximants are ⟨l̥⟩ and ⟨l̊⟩, combinations of the letter for the voiced alveolar lateral approximant and a diacritic indicating voicelessness above or below the letter. The equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is l_0.

Voiceless alveolar lateral approximant
l̥
IPA Number	155 402A
Encoding
X-SAMPA	l_0

Voiceless postalveolar lateral approximant
l̠̊

Voiceless dental lateral approximant
l̪̊

Voiceless lateral approximants are common in Sino-Tibetan languages, but uncommon elsewhere.

Features

Features of the voiceless alveolar lateral approximant:

• Its manner of articulation is approximant, which means it is produced by narrowing the vocal tract at the place of articulation, but not enough to produce a turbulent airstream.
• There are four specific variants of [l̥]:
  • Dental, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue at the upper teeth, termed respectively apical and laminal.
  • Denti-alveolar, which means it is articulated with the blade of the tongue at the alveolar ridge, and the tip of the tongue behind upper teeth.
  • 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.
  • Postalveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue behind 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

Dental or denti-alveolar

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Khanty	Surgut dialect	ԓӓпәт	[ˈl̥æpət]	'seven'	Contrasts with palatalized /l̥ʲ/. Corresponds to /l/ or /t/ in other dialects
	Kazym dialect	ԓапәт	[ˈl̥ɑpət]
Moksha		калхне	[ˈkal̥nʲæ]	'these fishes'	Contrasts plain voiceless, plain voiced, palatalized voiceless and palatalized voiced versions.
Norwegian	Trondheim dialect[1]	sælt	[s̪al̪̊t̪]	'sold'	Laminal denti-alveolar; allophone of /l/. Also described as a fricative [ɬ̪].[2] See Norwegian phonology
Kildin Sami		пэӆтэ	[ˈpel̥te]	'to scare'	Three-dimensional contrast: voiced-voiceless, plain-palatalized, short-long, total eight [l]-like phonemes.
Turkish[3]		yol	[ˈjo̞ɫ̪̊]	'way'	Velarized laminal denti-alveolar.[3] It is a frequent realization of /ɫ/ in word-final and preconsonantal positions.[4] See Turkish phonology

Alveolar

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Danish	Standard[5]	plads	[ˈpl̥æs]	'square'	Before /l/, aspiration of /p, t, k/ is realized as devoicing of /l/.[5] See Danish phonology
English[6]		clean	[kl̥iːn]	'clean'
Estonian[7]		mahl	[mɑ̝hːl̥]	'juice'	Word-final allophone of /l/ after /t, s, h/.[7] See Estonian phonology
Tibetan		ལྷ	[l̥a]	'deity'	Contrasts voiceless and voiced lateral approximants
Ukrainian[8]		смисл	[s̪mɪs̪l̥]	'sense'	Word-final allophone of /l/ after voiceless consonants.[8] See Ukrainian phonology
Washo		madukwáwLu	[maduˈkwawl̥u]	'sunflower'
Xumi	Lower[9]	[^RPʁul̥o]		'head'	Contrasts with the voiced /l/.[9][10]
	Upper[10]	[^EPbəl̥ɐ]		'to open a lock'

Postalveolar

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Turkish[3]		dil	[ˈd̪il̠̊ʲ]	'tongue'	Palatalized.[3] It is a frequent realization of /l/ in word-final and preconsonantal positions.[4] See Turkish phonology

See also

• Voiceless alveolar lateral fricative
• Dental, alveolar and postalveolar lateral approximants

Notes

1. Vanvik (1979:36)
2. Kristoffersen (2000:79)
3. Zimmer & Orgun (1999:154–155)
4. Zimmer & Orgun (1999:155)
5. Basbøll (2005:65–66)
6. "Phonemic vs Phonetic Transcription". australianlinguistics.com. Retrieved January 4, 2019.
7. Asu & Teras (2009:368)
8. Danyenko & Vakulenko (1995:10)
9. Chirkova & Chen (2013), pp. 365, 367–368.
10. Chirkova, Chen & Kocjančič Antolík (2013), pp. 382–383.

References

• 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, ISBN 0-203-97876-5
• Chirkova, Katia; Chen, Yiya (2013), "Xumi, Part 1: Lower Xumi, the Variety of the Lower and Middle Reaches of the Shuiluo River" (PDF), 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" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 43 (3): 381–396, doi:10.1017/S0025100313000169
• Danyenko, Andrii; Vakulenko, Serhii (1995), Ukrainian, Lincom Europa, ISBN 9783929075083
• Kristoffersen, Gjert (2000), The Phonology of Norwegian, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-823765-5
• Vanvik, Arne (1979), Norsk fonetikk, Oslo: Universitetet i Oslo, ISBN 82-990584-0-6
• Zimmer, Karl; Orgun, Orhan (1999), "Turkish" (PDF), 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

External links

• List of languages with [l̥] on PHOIBLE