Voiceless dental and alveolar lateral fricatives

The voiceless alveolar lateral fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents voiceless dental, alveolar, and postalveolar lateral fricatives is [ɬ], and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is K. The symbol [ɬ] is called "belted l" and should not be confused with "l with tilde", [ɫ], which transcribes a different sound, the velarized alveolar lateral approximant.

Voiceless alveolar lateral fricative
ɬ
IPA Number148
Encoding
Entity (decimal)ɬ
Unicode (hex)U+026C
X-SAMPAK
Audio sample
source · help
Voiceless alveolar lateral approximant
l̥
IPA Number155 402A
Encoding
X-SAMPAl_0

Several Welsh names beginning with this sound (e.g. Llwyd [ɬʊɨd], Llywelyn [ɬəˈwɛlɨn]) have been borrowed into English, where they either retain the Welsh ⟨ll⟩ spelling but are pronounced with an /l/ (Lloyd, Llewellyn), or are substituted with ⟨fl⟩ (pronounced /fl/) (Floyd, Fluellen).

Some scholars also posit the voiceless alveolar lateral approximant distinct from the fricative. The approximant may be represented in the IPA as ⟨l̥⟩. The distinction is not recognized by the International Phonetic Association.

Features

Features of the voiceless alveolar lateral fricative:

  • 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.

Occurrence

Although the sound is rare among European languages outside the Caucasus (being found notably in Welsh, where it is written ⟨ll⟩),[1] it is fairly common among indigenous languages of the Americas such as Nahuatl, Navajo,[2] and North Caucasian languages, such as Avar.[3] It is also found in African languages like Zulu, Asian languages like Chukchi and some Yue dialects like Taishanese, and several Formosan languages and a number of dialects in Taiwan.[4]

The sound is found in two of the constructed languages invented by J. R. R. Tolkien, Sindarin (inspired by Welsh) and Quenya (inspired by Finnish, Ancient Greek, and Latin).[5][6] In Sindarin it is written as ⟨lh⟩ initially and ⟨ll⟩ medially and finally; in Quenya it only appears initially and is written ⟨hl⟩.

Dental or denti-alveolar
Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Mapudungun[7] kagüḻ [kɜˈɣɘɬ̪] 'phlegm that is spit' Interdental; possible utterance-final allophone of /l̪/.[7]
Norwegian Trondheim dialect[8] sælt [s̪aɬ̪t̪] 'sold' Laminal denti-alveolar; allophone of /l/. Also described as an approximant.[9] See Norwegian phonology
Turkish[10] yol [ˈjo̞ɫ̪̊] 'way' Devoiced allophone of velarized dental /ɫ/, frequent finally and before voiceless consonants.[10] See Turkish phonology

Alveolar
Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Ahtna dzeł [tsəɬ] 'mountain'
Aleut Atkan dialect hlax̂ [ɬɑχ] 'boy'
Amis Southern dialect kudiwis [kuɬiwis] 'rabbit'
Avar лъабго [ˈɬabɡo] 'three'
Basay lanum [ɬanum] 'water'
Berber Ait Seghrouchen altu [æˈɬʊw] 'not yet' Allophone of /lt/
Bunun Isbukun ludun [ɬuɗun] 'mountain'
Bura[11] Contrasts with [ɮ] and [ʎ̝̊].[11]
Cherokee Some speakers ᎥᏝ [ə̃ʔɬa] 'no' Corresponds to [tɬ] in the speech of most speakers
Chickasaw lhinko [ɬiŋko] 'to be fat'
Chinese Taishanese[12] 三 [ɬam˧] 'three' Corresponds to [s] in Standard Cantonese
Pinghua
Pu-Xian Min 沙 [ɬua˥˧˧] 'sand'
Chipewyan łue [ɬue] 'fish'
Chukchi ԓевыт [ɬeβət] 'head'
Circassian плъыжь [pɬəʑ]  'red'
Creek (Mvskoke) rakkē [ɬakkiː] 'big' Historically transcribed thl or tl by English speakers
Danish Standard[13] plads [ˈpl̥æs] 'square' Before /l/, aspiration of /p, t, k/ is realized as devoicing of /l/.[13] See Danish phonology
Dahalo [ʡáɬi] 'fat'
Dogrib ło [ɬo] 'smoke'
Estonian[14] mahl [mɑ̝hːl̥] 'juice' Word-final allophone of /l/ after /t, s, h/.[14] See Estonian phonology
Eyak qeł [qʰɛʔɬ] 'woman'
Fali [paɬkan] 'shoulder'
Faroese hjálp [jɔɬp] 'help'
Forest Nenets хару [xaɬʲu] 'rain' Forest Nenets has both plain /ɬ/ and palatalized /ɬʲ/
Greenlandic illu [iɬːu] 'house' Realization of geminated /l/
Hadza sleme [ɬeme] 'man'
Haida tla'únhl [tɬʰʌʔʊ́nɬ] 'six'
Halkomelem ɬ'eqw [ɬeqw] 'wet'
Hebrew Biblical שָׂטָן‎ [ɬɑːtˤɑːn] 'Satan'
Hla'alua hla [ɬɑ] 'and'
Hmong hli [ɬi]  'moon'
Icelandic siglt [sɪɬt] 'have sailed' Allophone of /l̥/. See Icelandic phonology.
Inuktitut akłak [akɬak] 'grizzly bear' See Inuit phonology
Kabardian лъы [ɬə]  'blood'
Kaska tsį̄ł [tsʰĩːɬ] 'axe'
Kham Gamale Kham[15] ह्ला [ɬɐ] 'leaf'
Lushootseed łukʷał [ɬukʷaɬ] 'sun'
Mapudungun[7] kaül [kɜˈɘɬ] 'a different song' Possible utterance-final allophone of /l/.[7]
Mochica paxllær [paɬøɾ] Phaseolus lunatus
Moloko sla [ɬa] 'cow'
Mongolian лхагва [ɬaʁʷ] 'Wednesday' Only in loanwords from Tibetan;[16] here from ལྷག་པ (lhag-pa)
Nahuatl āltepētl [aːɬˈtɛpɛːt͡ɬ] 'city' Allophone of /l/
Navajo łaʼ [ɬaʔ] 'some' See Navajo phonology
Nisga'a hloks [ɬoks] 'sun'
Norwegian Trøndersk tatl / tasl [tʰɑɬ] 'sissiness' See Norwegian phonology
Nuxalk lhm [ɬm] 'to stand'
Saanich ȽNIṈEȽ [ɬníŋəɬ] 'we, us'
Saaroa rahli [raɬi] 'chief'
Sahaptin łp’úł [ˈɬpʼuɬ] 'tears'
Sandawe lhaa [ɬáː] 'goat'
Sassarese morthu [ˈmoɬtu]  'dead'
Sawi ɬo [ɬo] 'three' Developed out of the earlier tr consonant clusters[17]
Shuswap ɬept [ɬept] 'fire is out'
Sotho ho hlahloba [ho ɬɑɬɔbɑ] 'to examine' See Sotho phonology
St’át’imcets lhésp [ɬə́sp] 'rash'
Swedish Jämtlandic kallt [kaɬt] 'cold' See Swedish phonology
Taos łiwéna [ɬìˈwēnæ] 'wife' See Taos phonology
Tera[18] tleebi [ɬè̞ːbi] 'side'
Thao kilhpul [kiɬpul] 'star'
Tlingit lingít [ɬɪ̀nkɪ́tʰ] 'Tlingit'
Ukrainian[19] смисл [s̪mɪs̪l̥] 'sense' Word-final allophone of /l/ after voiceless consonants.[19] See Ukrainian phonology
Tsez лъи [ɬi]  'water'
Welsh llall [ɬaːɬ] '(the) other' See Welsh phonology
Yi ꆧꁨ hlop-bbop [ɬo˧˩bo˧˩] 'moon'
Xhosa sihlala [síˈɬaːla] 'we stay'
Xumi Lower[20] [RPʁul̥o] 'head' Described as an approximant. Contrasts with the voiced /l/.[20][21]
Upper[21] [EPbəl̥ɐ] 'to open a lock'
Zulu isihlahla [isíˈɬaːɬa] 'tree'
Zuni asdemła [ʔastemɬan] 'ten'

Semitic languages

The sound is conjectured as a phoneme for Proto-Semitic language, usually transcribed as ś; it has evolved into Arabic [ʃ], Hebrew [s]:

Proto-Semitic Akkadian Arabic Phoenician Hebrew Aramaic Ge'ez
ś s̠ شš š שׂ‎s ܫs ሠś

Amongst Semitic languages, the sound still exists in contemporary Soqotri and Mehri.[22] In Ge'ez, it is written with the letter Śawt.

Capital letter
Latin Capital Letter L with Belt

Since the IPA letter "ɬ" has been adopted into the standard orthographies for many native North American languages, a capital letter L with belt "Ɬ" was requested by academics and added to the Unicode Standard version 7.0 in 2014 at U+A7AD.[23][24]

See also

Notes
  1. Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996), p. 203.
  2. McDonough, Joyce (2003). The Navajo Sound System. Cambridge: Kluwer. ISBN 1-4020-1351-5.
  3. Laver, John (1994). Principles of Phonetics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 257–258. ISBN 0-521-45655-X.
  4. Henry Y., Chang (2000). 噶瑪蘭語參考語法 (Kavalan Grammar). Taipei: 遠流 (Yuan-Liou). pp. 43–45. ISBN 9573238985.
  5. Helge, Fauskanger. "Sindarin – the Noble Tongue". Ardalambion. Retrieved 2 January 2019.
  6. Helge, Fauskanger. "Quenya Course". Ardalambion. Retrieved 2 January 2019.
  7. Sadowsky et al. (2013), pp. 88, 91.
  8. Kristoffersen (2000), p. 79.
  9. Vanvik (1979), p. 36.
  10. Zimmer & Orgun (1999), pp. 154–155.
  11. Grønnum (2005), pp. 154–155.
  12. Taishanese Dictionary & Resources
  13. Basbøll (2005), pp. 65–66.
  14. Asu & Teras (2009), p. 368.
  15. Wilde, Christopher P. (2016). "Gamale Kham phonology revisited, with Devanagari-based orthography and lexicon". Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society. ISSN 1836-6821.
  16. Svantesson et al. (2005), pp. 30–33.
  17. Liljegren, Henrik (2009). "The Dangari Tongue of Choke and Machoke: Tracing the proto-language of Shina enclaves in the Hindu Kush". Acta Orientalia (70): 7–62.
  18. Tench (2007), p. 228.
  19. Danyenko & Vakulenko (1995), p. 10.
  20. Chirkova & Chen (2013), pp. 365, 367–368.
  21. Chirkova, Chen & Kocjančič Antolík (2013), pp. 382–383.
  22. Howe, Darin (2003). Segmental Phonology. University of Calgary. p. 22.
  23. Joshua M Jensen, Karl Pentzlin, 2012-02-08, Proposal to encode a Latin Capital Letter L with Belt
  24. "Unicode Character 'LATIN CAPITAL LETTER L WITH BELT' (U+A7AD)". www.fileformat.info. FileFormat.Info. Retrieved 20 June 2020.

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, Oxford University Press, 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", 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", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 43 (3): 381–396, doi:10.1017/S0025100313000169
  • Danyenko, Andrii; Vakulenko, Serhii (1995), Ukrainian, Lincom Europa, ISBN 9783929075083
  • Grønnum, Nina (2005), Fonetik og fonologi, Almen og Dansk (3rd ed.), Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag, ISBN 87-500-3865-6
  • Kristoffersen, Gjert (2000), The Phonology of Norwegian, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-823765-5
  • Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996), The Sounds of the World's Languages, Oxford: Blackwell, ISBN 978-0-631-19815-4
  • Sadowsky, Scott; Painequeo, Héctor; Salamanca, Gastón; Avelino, Heriberto (2013), "Mapudungun", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 43 (1): 87–96, doi:10.1017/S0025100312000369
  • Svantesson, Jan-Olof; Tsendina, Anna; Mukhanova Karlsson, Anastasia; Franzen, Vivan (2005), The phonology of Mongolian, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0199260176
  • Tench, Paul (2007), "Tera", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 37 (1): 228–234, doi:10.1017/s0025100307002952
  • Vanvik, Arne (1979), Norsk fonetikk, Oslo: Universitetet i Oslo, ISBN 82-990584-0-6
  • Zimmer, Karl; Orgun, Orhan (1999), "Turkish", 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

Further reading
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