Friday, October 16, 2009

dark l, sonorant gemination

The "l" of "bell" when it ends a word is kind of a "half l" when compared to the initial "l" in "love" which allows the "l" voicing to be completed by going to a vowel. Yet the "l" in the word "bell" also gets completed if the next word starts with a vowel as in "bell of the ballL" Then the "l" kind of moves over to the "o" of "of" in flowing speech, actually sounding like the world "love".



Some folks have a salient "l" such that when they leave the "l" to go to a vowel the tongue flaps downward even to the extent of slapping the lower part of the mouth. Joe Namath, of American football fame, has a salient "l".



Sonorant gemination

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