Delateralization Explained

pronounced as /notice/Delateralization is a replacement of a lateral consonant by a central consonant.

Yeísmo (Romance languages)

See main article: Yeísmo. Arguably, the best known example of this sound change is yeísmo, which occurs in many Spanish and some Galician dialects.

In accents with yeísmo, the palatal lateral approximant pronounced as //ʎ// merges with the palatal approximant pronounced as //ʝ// which, phonetically, can be an affricate pronounced as /link/ (word-initially and after pronounced as //n//), an approximant pronounced as /link/ (in other environments) or a fricative pronounced as /link/ (in the same environments as the approximant, but only in careful speech).

In Romanian, the palatal lateral approximant pronounced as //ʎ// merged with pronounced as //j// centuries ago. The same happened to the historic palatal nasal pronounced as //ɲ//, although that is an example of lenition.

In French, ⟨il⟩ (except in the word "il" [il]) and ⟨ill⟩ (usually followed by "e"; exceptions include "ville" [vil]) are usually pronounced [ij]. It generally occurs word- or morpheme-finally. For example, travail "work" (noun) [tʁavaj], gentil "kind" masculine singular [ʒɛ̃tij], travaillait "(he/she/it) used to work" [tʁavaje], gentille "kind" feminine singular [ʒɛ̃tij].

Furthermore, when a French word ending in al is pluralized, rather than becoming als, it becomes aux. For example, un animal spécial "a special animal" > des animaux spéciaux "(some) special animals".

Turkish

Delateralisation can occur in Turkish. Its one lateral is [l], which can become [j] after [i]. For example, değil "not" is pronounced [de.ij].

English

When [l] appears word-finally, or after a vowel and before a consonant, it can become [w]. For example, little [ˈlɪ.tʰl̩] > [ˈlɪ.tʰw̩], bell [bɛl] > [bɛw], help [hɛlp] > [hɛwpʰ].

Polish

The Polish letter Ł represents the sound [w]. This is evidence of a delateralised sound.

Arabic Ḍād

See main article: Ḍād. Another known example of delateralization is the sound change that happened to the Arabic ḍād, which, historically, was a lateral consonant, either a pharyngealized voiced alveolar lateral fricative or a similar affricated sound pronounced as /link/ or pronounced as /link/.[1] [2] The affricated form is suggested by loans of into Akkadian as ld or lṭ and into Malaysian as dl.[3] However, some linguists, such as the French orientalist André Roman supposes that the letter was actually a pharyngealized voiced alveolo-palatal sibilant pronounced as /[ʑˤ]/, similar to the Polish ź, which is not a lateral sound.[1] [2] [4]

In modern Arabic, there are three possible realizations of this sound, all of which are central:[3]

References

pronounced as /navigation/

Notes and References

  1. Book: Versteegh. Kees. Arazi. Albert. Sadan. Joseph. Wasserstein. David J.. Compilation and Creation in Adab and Luġa: Studies in Memory of Naphtali Kinberg (1948–1997). 1999. 273–286. Loanwords from Arabic and the merger of ḍ/ḏ̣ . 9781575060453. https://books.google.com/books?id=hNNHi_RdJ1MC&pg=PA273.
  2. Book: Versteegh. Kees. Kinberg. Leah. Versteegh. Kees. Studies in the Linguistic Structure of Classical Arabic. 2000. Brill. 9004117652. 197–199. Treatise on the pronunciation of the ḍād. https://books.google.com/books?id=_EJ861jo4AQC&pg=PA197.
  3. Book: Versteegh. Kees. The Arabic language. 2003. 1997. Edinburgh University Press. Edinburgh. 9780748614363. 89. Repr..
  4. Book: Roman. André. Étude de la phonologie et de la morphologie de la koiné arabe. 1983. Université de Provence. Aix-en-Provence. 1. 162–206.