From: Mark Odegard
Message: 897
Date: 2000-01-13
BTW, Polish plain /l/ is alveolar and apical, but not dark (the back of the tongue is kept low). It is the same as French /l/, and, like the latter, may occasionally involve "retroflection" -- the curving back of the tip of the tongue, so that it touches the hard palate behind the alveolar ridge.
So. The retroflex L is the way I pronounce 'bell'? And this is 'light' L?
Actually, the tip of my tongue is at the point just behind the alveolar ridge, just over the edge of the 'cliff', where it curves upward to meet the top of the mouth (there are the upper teeth, the ridge behind them, then the region just behind that where the ridge goes over a 'cliff', the cliff itself, and finally, the dome-like hard area at the top front of the mouth).
Mark.