Re: Changes in pronunciation before 'l' in English

From: Greg Lee (greg_at_ling.lll.hawaii.edu)
Date: 07/28/04 

Date: 28 Jul 2004 05:03:42 GMT

Mxsmanic <mxsmanic@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Something changes in the pronunciation of vowels before 'l' in works
> like walk, talk, etc., or at least that's my impression. What change
> occurs, and how do I transcribe it? "Walk" seems to rhyme almost with
> "wok," except for the timbre of the vowel (that is, I don't really hear
> an 'l' sound in it). Does the 'l' color the vowel without being
> pronounced itself, or what?

According to descriptions I've seen, 'l' after the vowel of a syllable
is velarized. I think it's actually uvularized, at least in my speech.
At any rate, the dark 'l' does indeed color the preceding vowel. The
'l' may lose its alveolar articulation and become a uvular glide,
and then the diphthong formed by the vowel + glide combination
can monophthongize to a simple, rather hard to describe and
somewhat disgusting, single vowel. In my speech, 'milk' has
a diphthong and 'bulk' a simple vowel. 

-- 
Greg Lee <greg@ling.lll.hawaii.edu>

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