So, a little change from the voiced and voiceless contrasts from the past few weeks. This week we’re talking about the two ‘l’ sounds in English. This is definitely one which falls into the “interesting” category: making these sounds correctly is not essential to understanding, but as learners often don’t realise there are two l sounds, it can be fascinating for you to notice that you’ve been doing it correctly without knowing. We’ll also talk briefly again about how connected speech affects the ‘l’ sound.
So, when we think of the letter ‘l’, we tend to think of the sound /l/. This is made by placing the tip of the tongue against the alveolar ridge (the hard gummy bit behind your upper front teeth), and is the sound we here in ‘like’, ‘love’ and so on, is called ‘clear l’. We make clear ‘l’ before vowel sounds (sounds, not written letters).
The ‘l’ in ‘milk’ is different though. Say it to yourself. Do you feel a difference in where you make the sound? You should notice that back of the tongue is higher towards the soft palate (the hard part of the roof of your mouth), and that while the tip of the tongue does move towards the alveolar ridge, it might not necessarily fully make contact with it. This /ɫ/ sound is called ‘dark l’. We make dark ‘l’ before a consonant or silence. Think about the difference between saying ‘full’ or ‘fully’, between ‘journal’ and ‘journalist’, or ‘travel’ and ‘traveller’. Then think about what happens when ‘full’ is followed by a word beginning with a vowel sound, rather than silence. We get, for example, ‘full of fun’ – the ‘dark l’ becomes clear ‘l’. This phenomenon, where the consonant sound from one word attaches itself to the vowel sound in another, is called catenation, but as I said last week, it’s more important to know how the sounds behave than to remember the technical terms!
Now, depending on speaker, how fast or clearly they’re speaking, and the words they’re saying, this dark ‘l’ can become very dark, and can be hard to hear at all, or can appear to be more of a ‘w’ sound. Cockney English is famous for this feature, but is not the only one! As you listen and repeat, consider how ‘dark’ your dark ‘l’ is! Do you find it easier to produce either ‘l’ sound in certain places?
Let’s start with clear ‘l’. Listen and repeat.
| ability
| absolutely
| analyse
| blue
| carefully
| clean
| complain
| dislike
| early
| employer
| excellent
| flower
| holiday
| illustrate
| intelligent
| language
| learning
| lesson
| online
| outline
| philosophy
| popular
| qualification
| relax
| select
| unless
| value
| volume
And now the same with dark ‘l’.
| awful
| battle
| belt
| central
| couple
| detail
| double
| email
| external
| fail
| film
| gentle
| healthy
| ideal
| medical
| middle
| multiple
| novel
| physical
| possible
| pupil
| rule
| several
| skill
| successful
| themselves
| title
| welcome
Now let’s look at some words with both sounds: see if you can feel the way your tongue moves differently in your mouth.
1. calculate
2. classical
3. clavicle
4. cultural
5. developmental
6. electrical
7. global
8. intellectual
9. legal
10. level
11. lifestyle
12. little
13. local
14. logical
15. illogical
16. political
Finally, let’s try some sentences with a mixture of clear and dark ‘l’s.
In the first three sentences, the ‘l’s behave as you would expect.
He clearly disliked the classical philosophy.
The employer carefully analysed every external detail.
Several pupils ruled themselves out of the language learning battle.
In the next two sentences, notice how a word-final ‘l’, which would be dark if followed by silence, becomes clear because it’s followed by a vowel sound.
Multiple online language lessons are excellent value.
Their email outlined every possible eventuality.
The detail in his medical illustrations is visible in several excellent volumes.