From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 810
Date: 2000-01-09
----- Original Message -----From: smithSent: Sunday, January 09, 2000 1:20 PMSubject: [cybalist] Re: Odp: PhoneticsPiotr wrote:Now let's begin with English.English /l/ is "dark" when it's final or followed by a consonant (the technical term is "velarised"): the back of the tongue is raised towards the soft palate and the timbre of the consonant resembles a back vowel (/o/ or /u/). In some accents of English the tip of the tongue, instead of being pressed against the alveolar ridge (the upper gum), is lowered, and preconsonantal darl /l/ is realised as a back vowel or semivowel. In such cases we say that /l/ undergoes "vocalisation".Before a vowel /l/ is "clear" (with the body of the tongue assuming a "neutral" position) in standard British English. In American English, however, /l/ usually has a darkish quality even in this position, and in Scottish English it is positively dark (in Irish English, for a change, /l/ is clear in all positions). All dialects agree in having clear, slightly palatalised /l/ before /j/ as in million.The normal place of articulation in English is alveolar (the tongue-tip touches the upper gum just behind the front teeth). However, dark /l/ is assimilated to the following th iw words like filth or health, becoming a dental sound (the tongue tip touches the teeth).Andrew here now:Interestingly, there is a subtle vowel shift in what is sometimes called the "Essex accent" or "Estuarine" spoken north of the Thames estuary. This vowel shift pronounces the final L like an English W. Examples: "carefuw" for "careful". This may parallel the development of Polish glide l from Proto-Slavic. Unlike in Polish, other final letters, especially t, are also comonnly dropped in Essex English.It has to be said that the Essex accent is regarded by many educated English as uncouth and sloppy. Essex men and Essex girls are the objects of numerous jokes. This contrasts to other regional English accents (eg Yorkshire, Scottish, West country), which are treated with respect as a legitimate way to speak English. I was brought up in Essex, and my parents actively "corrected" my Essex accent.
Thanks for a nice example, Andrew; this is precisely what I understand by L-vocalisation. It's been for a long time a familiar feature of Cockney -- a dialect which shares many phonetic traits with Estuary English . This change is parallel not only to the Polish development but also to innumerable other cases of liquid vocalisation worldwide. Even in the dialects from which Standard English derived its features L-vocalisation operated in certain contexts, hence the "mute L" in folk, yolk, talk, calf, salmon or palm. Until quite recently the "best" RP pronunciation of falcon and solder, as prescribed by dictionary-makers, was L-less, and a typical Victorian brigadier would have referred to his men as "sojers". Holborn is still "Ho'b'n" for most Londoners, I believe. In such cases the L has been or is being reintroduced as an artificial spelling-pronunciation.As far as I know, L-vocalisation occurs in some American accents as well, especially in the "hick" accents of the South and less commonly in NYC English. Postvocalic /l/ may be "half-vocalised" there, with the tip of the tongue still raised slightly but not making full contact with the alveolar ridge. I suspect this is what Iuri has observed in the case of postvocalic /l/ in Portuguese.Piotr