Delateralization

{{main|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 {{IPA|/ʎ/}} merges with the palatal approximant {{IPA|/ʝ/}} which, phonetically, can be an affricate {{IPAblink|ɟ͡ʝ}} (word-initially and after {{IPA|/n/}}), an approximant {{IPAblink|ʝ̞}} (in other environments) or a fricative {{IPAblink|ʝ}} (in the same environments as the approximant, but only in careful speech).

In Romanian, the palatal lateral approximant {{IPA|/ʎ/}} merged with {{IPA|/j/}} centuries ago. The same happened to the historic palatal nasal {{IPA|/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], travaillait "(he/she/it) used to work" [tʁavaje], gentille "kind" feminine singular [ʒɑ̃tij].

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".

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

{{Main||L-vocalization#Modern_English}}

In some accents, 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].

The Polish letter Ł represents the sound [w]. The orthography is evidence of an original lateral.

{{main|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 {{audio-IPA|Voiced pharyngealized alveolar lateral fricative.ogg|[ɮˤ]}} or a similar affricated sound {{IPAblink|d͡ɮ|d͡ɮˤ}} or {{IPAblink|d͡ɮ|dˡˤ}}.{{cite book|last1=Versteegh|first1=Kees|editor1-last=Arazi|editor1-first=Albert|editor2-last=Sadan|editor2-first=Joseph|editor3-last=Wasserstein|editor3-first=David J.|title=Compilation and Creation in Adab and Luġa: Studies in Memory of Naphtali Kinberg (1948–1997)|date=1999|pages=273–286|chapter=Loanwords from Arabic and the merger of ḍ/ḏ̣ |publisher=Eisenbrauns |isbn=9781575060453|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hNNHi_RdJ1MC&pg=PA273}}{{cite book|last1=Versteegh|first1=Kees|editor1-last=Kinberg|editor1-first=Leah|editor2-last=Versteegh|editor2-first=Kees|title=Studies in the Linguistic Structure of Classical Arabic|date=2000|publisher=Brill|isbn=9004117652|pages=197–199|chapter=Treatise on the pronunciation of the ḍād|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_EJ861jo4AQC&pg=PA197}} The affricated form is suggested by loans of ḍ into Akkadian as ld or lṭ and into Malaysian as dl.{{cite book|last1=Versteegh|first1=Kees|title=The Arabic language|date=2003|orig-year=1997|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|location=Edinburgh|isbn=9780748614363|page=89|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OHfse3YY6NAC&pg=PA89|edition=Repr.}} However, some linguists, such as the French orientalist André Roman supposes that the letter was actually a pharyngealized voiced alveolo-palatal sibilant {{IPA|[ʑˤ]}}, similar to the Polish ź, which is not a lateral sound.{{cite book|last1=Roman|first1=André|title=Étude de la phonologie et de la morphologie de la koiné arabe|date=1983|publisher=Université de Provence|location=Aix-en-Provence|volume=1|pages=162–206}}

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

• Pharyngealized voiced alveolar stop {{audio-IPA|Voiced_pharyngealized_alveolar_stop.ogg|[dˤ]}}
• Pharyngealized voiced dental stop {{IPA|[d̪ˤ]}}
• Velarized voiced dental stop {{IPA|[d̪ˠ]}}.

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Category:Lateral consonants

Category:Sound changes

Category:Central consonants

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