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Unit 6: Consonants and Its Phonetic Transcription

As a result of this, the rule must be modified: it must state that comparative and superlative Notes
forms of adjectives are to be treated as single-morpheme words for the purposes of this rule. It
is important to remember that English speakers in general (apart from those trained in phonetics)
are quite ignorant of this rule, and yet if a foreigner uses the wrong pronunciation (i.e. pronounces
ŋl where ŋ should occur, or ŋ where ŋl should be used), they notice that a mispronunciation
has occurred.
(iii) A third way in which the distribution of ŋ is unusual is the small number of vowels it is found
to follow. It rarely occurs after a diphthong or long vowel, so only the short vowels w, e, æ, Λ ,
Z, • , are regularly found preceding this consonant.
e
The velar nasal consonant ŋ is, in summary, phonetically simple (it is no more difficult to
produce than m or n) but phonologically complex (it is, as we have seen, not easy to describe
the contexts in which it occurs).
6.2 The Consonant l

The l phoneme (as in ‘long’ lZŋ, ‘hill’ hwl) is a lateral approximant. This is a consonant in which the
passage of air through the mouth does not go in the usual way along the centre of the tongue; instead,
there is complete closure between the centre of the tongue and the part of the roof of the mouth where
contact is to be made (the alveolar ridge in the case of l). Because of this complete closure along the
centre, the only way for the air to escape is along the sides of the tongue. The lateral approximant is
therefore somewhat different from other approximants, in which there is usually much less contact
between the articulators. If you make a long l sound you may be able to feel that the sides of your
tongue are pulled in and down while the centre is raised, but it is not easy to become consciously
aware of this; what is more revealing (if you can do it) is to produce a long sequence of alternations
between d and l without any intervening vowel. If you produce dldldldldl without moving the middle
of the tongue, you will be able to feel the movement of the sides of the tongue that is necessary for the
production of a lateral. It is also possible to see this movement in a mirror if you open your lips wide
as you produce it. Finally, it is also helpful to see if you can feel the movement of air past the sides of
the tongue; this is not really possible in a voiced sound (the obstruction caused by the vibrating vocal
folds reduces the airflow), but if you try to make a very loud whispered l, you should be able to feel
the air rushing along the sides of your tongue.
We find l initially, medially and finally, and its distribution is therefore not particularly limited. In
BBC pronunciation, the consonant has one unusual characteristic: the realisation of l found before
vowels sounds quite different from that found in other contexts. For example, the realisation of l in
the word ‘lea’ li+ is quite different from that in ‘eel’ i+l.The sound in ‘eel’ is what we call a “dark l”; it
has a quality rather similar to an [u] vowel, with the back of the tongue raised. The phonetic symbol
for this sound is l . The sound in ‘lea’ is what is called a “clear l”; it resembles an [i] vowel, with the
front of the tongue raised (we do not normally use a special phonetic symbol, different from l, to
indicate this sound). The “dark l” is also found when it precedes a consonant, as in ‘eels’ i+lz. We can
therefore predict which realisation of l (clear or dark) will occur in a particular context: clear l will
never occur before consonants or before a pause, but only before vowels; dark l never occurs before
vowels. We can say, using terminology introduced, that clear l and dark 1 are allophones of the
phoneme l in complementary distribution. Most English speakers do not consciously know about the
difference between clear and dark l, yet they are quick to detect the difference when they hear English
speakers with different accents, or when they hear foreign learners who have not learned the correct
pronunciation. You might be able to observe that most American and lowland Scottish speakers use
a “dark l” in all positions, and don’t have a “clear l” in their pronunciation, while most Welsh and
Irish speakers have “clear l” in all positions.
Another allophone of l is found when it follows p, k at the beginning of a stressed syllable. The l is
then devoiced (i.e. produced without the voicing found in most realisations of this phoneme) and
pronounced as a fricative. The situation is similar to the aspiration found when a vowel follows p, t,
k in a stressed syllable: the first part of the vowel is devoiced.

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