Voiced velar lateral approximant

The voiced velar lateral approximant is a type of consonantal sound, used as a distinct consonant in a very small number^[1] of spoken languages in the world. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ʟ⟩, a small capital version of the Latin letter l (since 1989), and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is L\.

Voiced velar lateral approximant
ʟ
IPA number	158
Audio sample
source · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ʟ
Unicode (hex)	U+029F
X-SAMPA	L\
Braille
Image

The velar laterals of the world often involve a prestopped realization [ɡ͡ʟ].^[2]

Features

Features of the voiced velar 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.
• Its place of articulation is velar, which means it is articulated with the back of the tongue (the dorsum) at the soft palate.
• Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
• 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.
• Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

The velar lateral [ʟ] involves no contact of the tip of the tongue with the roof of the mouth: just like for the velar stop [ɡ], the only contact takes place between the back of the tongue and the velum. This contrasts with the velarized alveolar lateral approximant [ɫ] – also known as the dark l in English feel [fiːɫ] – for which the apex touches the alveolar ridge.^[3]

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
English	Southern US[4]	middle	[ˈmɪɾʟ̩]	'middle'	May occur before or after a velar consonant, as in milk and cycle, when assimilating /ʊ/, as in wolf, or before labial consonants, as in help. See English phonology
		full	[ˈfʟ̩ː]	'full'
Hiw[5]		r̄evr̄ov	[ɡ͡ʟəβˈɡ͡ʟɔβ]	'evening'	Realized as prestopped [ɡ͡ʟ].
Melpa[6]		paⱡa	[paʟa]ⓘ	'fence'	Realized as prestopped [ɡ͡ʟ].
Mid-Wahgi[7]		aglagle	[aʟaʟe]	'dizzy'	Realized as prestopped [ɡ͡ʟ].

See also

• Voiceless velar lateral approximant, [ʟ̥]
• Velarized alveolar lateral approximant, [ɫ]
• Voiceless alveolar lateral fricative, [ɬ]
• Velar lateral tap, [ʟ̆]
• Voiced velar lateral fricative, [ʟ̝]
• Voiceless velar lateral fricative, [ʟ̝̊] or extIPA [𝼄]
• Index of phonetics articles