Voiceless dental and alveolar lateral fricatives

A voiceless alveolar lateral fricative is a special sound used in some spoken languages. It is a type of consonantal sound, which means it is made by shaping the mouth in a certain way while letting air flow through.

The symbol that represents this sound in the International Phonetic Alphabet is [ɬ]. This symbol is called “belted l” and looks different from another symbol [ɫ], which stands for a sound often called “dark L.”

Some languages, like Burmese and Standard Tibetan, use a similar sound called a voiceless alveolar lateral approximant, written as ⟨l̥⟩. This sound also appears in some dialects of English, such as British English and Philadelphia English, under certain conditions.

Features

A voiceless alveolar lateral fricative is a special sound some languages use when speaking. It is made by narrowing the airflow in the mouth, which creates a hissing sound. This sound is produced at the ridge behind the upper teeth, using either the tip or the flat part of the tongue.

The sound is made without using the voice, so it is quiet and breathy. Air is pushed out through the mouth only, not the nose, and it flows around the sides of the tongue instead of straight down the middle.

Occurrence

Lateral fricatives are found in many languages around the world. They are common in some indigenous languages of western North America, like Nahuatl, Tlingit, and Navajo. You can also hear them in North Caucasian languages, such as Avar, and in African languages like Zulu. Some Asian languages, including Chukchi and certain Yue dialects like Taishanese, also use these sounds.

In European languages, lateral fricatives are rare except in areas like the Caucasus. However, they appear in Welsh, where they are written with the letters ⟨ll⟩. Some Welsh names that start with this sound, like Llwyd and Llywelyn, have been borrowed into English. In English, these names are usually spelled with "Lloyd" or "Llewellyn" and pronounced with a regular "l" sound, or sometimes with "fl" like in "Floyd" or "Fluellen".

Alveolar approximant

Velarized dental or alveolar approximant

Voiceless lateral-median fricative

A voiceless alveolar lateral–median fricative, sometimes called a "lisp" fricative, is a special sound made when air flows both to the middle and the sides of the tongue at the same time.

This sound is created by narrowing the airflow in the mouth, which causes a rough or hissing quality. It is made using the tip or the flat part of the tongue near the upper teeth ridge. The sound is made without using the voice box, so it does not have the vibrations we hear in voiced sounds. Air is pushed out only through the mouth, not the nose, and the airflow is directed both down the middle and over the sides of the tongue.

Capital letter

The symbol "ɬ" is used to show a special sound in some languages. In 2014, a big letter "Ɬ" was added to Unicode to help write this sound, different from another symbol used for a different sound.