Velarization

{{Unreferenced section|date=August 2021}}

A common example of a velarized consonant is the velarized alveolar lateral approximant (or "dark L"). In some accents of English, such as Received Pronunciation and arguably General American English, the phoneme {{IPA|/l/}} has "dark" and "light" allophones: the "dark", velarized allophone {{IPA|[ɫ]}} appears in syllable coda position (e.g. in full), while the "light", non-velarized allophone {{IPA|[l]}} appears in syllable onset position (e.g. in lawn). Other accents of English, such as Scottish English, Australian English, and potentially standard U.S. and Canadian accents, have "dark L" in all positions.

• Albanian phonemically contrasts light l and dark ll
• Catalan dialect and allophonic variance
• Portuguese dialect and allophonic variance
• Turkish
• Kurdish

For many languages, velarization is generally associated with more dental articulations of coronal consonants so that dark l tends to be dental or dentoalveolar, and clear l tends to be retracted to an alveolar position.{{Harvcoltxt|Recasens|Espinosa|2005|p=4}}

• Danish realizes {{IPA|/d/}} in some environments as a velarized {{IPA|[ð]}}.{{Cite web|url=https://dgcss.hum.ku.dk/aarsberetninger/2010/conference_proceedings_presentations/poster_sound_change_workshop_Barcelona_2010_N_Pharao.pdf|title=Word frequency and sound change in groups and individuals|last=Pharao|first=Nicolai|access-date=10 October 2018|archive-date=11 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181011013720/https://dgcss.hum.ku.dk/aarsberetninger/2010/conference_proceedings_presentations/poster_sound_change_workshop_Barcelona_2010_N_Pharao.pdf|url-status=dead}}
• Irish and Marshallese have velarized consonants that systematically contrast with palatalized consonants.{{Citation|last=Padgett|first=Jaye|title=The Emergence of Contrastive Palatalization in Russian|date=2003|url=https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0195-3_12|work=Optimality Theory and Language Change|pages=307–335|editor-last=Holt|editor-first=D. Eric|series=Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory|volume=56 |place=Dordrecht|publisher=Springer Netherlands|language=en|doi=10.1007/978-94-010-0195-3_12|isbn=978-94-010-0195-3|access-date=2021-06-24|url-access=subscription}}
• Similarly, Russian has velarized consonants as allophones of the non-palatalized (plain) series, especially prominent before front vowels and with labial and velar consonants as well as the lateral.{{Citation|last1=Roon|first1=Kevin D.|last2=Whalen|first2=D. H.|title=Velarization of Russian labial consonants|work=International Congress of Phonetic Sciences ICPhS 2019|date=2019|url=https://icphs2019.org/icphs2019-fullpapers/pdf/full-paper_828.pdf|access-date=2021-06-24|archive-date=2021-07-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709212624/https://icphs2019.org/icphs2019-fullpapers/pdf/full-paper_828.pdf|url-status=dead}}
• Scottish Gaelic has a three-way contrast in nasals and laterals between {{IPA|[n ~ n̪ˠ ~ ɲ]}} and {{IPA|[l ~ l̪ˠ ~ ʎ]}}Bauer, Michael. Blas na Gàidhlig: The Practical Guide to Gaelic Pronunciation. Glasgow: Akerbeltz, 2011.
• Kurdish has three velarized consonants ({{IPA|/ɫ/}}, {{IPA|/sˠ/}}, and {{IPA|/zˠ/}}) which contrast with plain ones.{{citation|last= Fattah|first= Ismaïl Kamandâr|year= 2000|title= Les dialectes Kurdes méridionaux|publisher= Acta Iranica |isbn= 9042909188 }}{{citation |last=McCarus|first=Ernest N. |year= 1958|title=—A Kurdish Grammar|url=https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED089545.pdf|access-date=11 June 2018}}
• Gilbertese has three velarized consonants (/mˠ/, /pˠ/, and /βˠ/), two of which (/mˠ/ and /pˠ/) contrast with a plain form.

The palatalized/velarized contrast is known by other names, especially in language pedagogy: in Irish and Scottish Gaelic language teaching, the terms slender (for palatalized) and broad (for velarized) are often used. In Scottish Gaelic the terms are caol (for palatalized) and leathann (for velarized).

The terms light or clear (for non-velarized or palatalized) and dark (for velarized) are also widespread. The terms "soft l " and "hard l " are not equivalent to "light l " and "dark l ". The former pair refers to palatalized ("soft" or iotated) and plain ("hard") Slavic consonants.

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| first1 = Daniel

| last2 = Fontdevila

| first2 = J

| last3 = Pallarès

| first3 = Maria Dolores

| year= 1995

| title = Velarization degree and coarticulatory resistance for /l/ in Catalan and German

| journal = Journal of Phonetics

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| pages=37–52

| doi = 10.1016/S0095-4470(95)80031-X

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| first1 = Daniel

| last2 = Espinosa

| first2 = Aina

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| title = Articulatory, positional and coarticulatory characteristics for clear /l/ and dark /l/: evidence from two Catalan dialects

| journal= Journal of the International Phonetic Association

|volume= 35

|issue= 1

|pages=1–25

|doi=10.1017/S0025100305001878

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|first1=Daniel

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|first2=Dennis

|year=1969

|title=The Phonetics of Russian

|publisher=Cambridge University Press

|isbn=9780521153003

|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=A9rrVMQ-PxsC

}}

{{refend}}

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Category:Phonetics

Category:Phonology

Category:Australian English

Category:Scottish English

Category:Velar consonants

Category:Secondary articulation