Uvular /l/ (Was: velarized /l/ again)

[Wilson Gray]

I have a friend who supposedly has that kind of "accent." I've never
noticed anything distinctive about this friend's speech. But another
friend, a speech therapist by profession, assured me that he spoke
with what she referred to as a "lateral lisp." When I asked her
exactly what constituted a "lateral lisp", she gave me examples
ranging from apparently what Paul is describing to Daffy Duck's
speech. I'm assuming that, in Paul's pronunciation of "play," it's his
pronunciation of the /l/ and not his pronunciation of the /p/ that
constitutes the "lisp."

-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Mark Twain



On Thu, Mar 12, 2009 at 2:27 AM, Paul A Johnston, Jr.
<paul.johnston at wmich.edu> wrote:
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> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Â  Â  Â  "Paul A Johnston, Jr." <paul.johnston at WMICH.EDU>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: Uvular /l/ (Was: velarized /l/ again)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> As a kid, I had this in onset position--it was one of the features I went to speech therapy (in IL) for. Â I don't know how widespread it is in NY/NJ/E PA, but I get the feeling I wasn't alone. Â In a word like "play", it was some kind of lateral fricative, too. Â I still sporadically come out with one.
>
> Paul Johnston
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Neal Whitman <nwhitman at AMERITECH.NET>
> Date: Tuesday, March 10, 2009 11:46 pm
> Subject: Uvular /l/ (Was: velarized /l/ again)
>
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>> ------------
>> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster: Â  Â  Â  Neal Whitman <nwhitman at AMERITECH.NET>
>> Subject: Â  Â  Â Uvular /l/ (Was: velarized /l/ again)
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------
>> ------------
>>
>> Some people use a different gesture involving the back of their
>> tongue to
>> make an /l/: a uvular nasal consonant. (It's represented as [N] in
>> IPA,which unfortunately is ambiguous here, since [N] is also SAMPA
>> for the velar
>> nasal.) I wrote about in a couple of short posts:
>> http://literalminded.wordpress.com/2006/05/21/totally-uvular/
>> http://literalminded.wordpress.com/2007/01/10/lsa-2007-l-and-s-at-the/
>>
>> Neal Whitman
>> Email: nwhitman at ameritech.net
>> Blog: http://literalminded.wordpress.com
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Herb Stahlke" <hfwstahlke at GMAIL.COM>
>> To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Sent: Tuesday, March 10, 2009 10:31 PM
>> Subject: velarized /l/ again
>>
>>
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>> > Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> > Poster: Â  Â  Â  Herb Stahlke <hfwstahlke at GMAIL.COM>
>> > Subject: Â  Â  Â velarized /l/ again
>> > -----------------------------------------------------------------
>> --------------
>> >
>> > Wilson mentioned in the previous thread that /l/ tends not to be
>> > velarized in AAE, at least certainly not as much in other AmE
>> > varieties. Â I've noticed this week the word "colleague"
>> pronounced on
>> > TV by two African Americans, one I think an Olympic track
>> athlete in a
>> > cell phone ad and the other Ice T on Law and Order SVU. Â Both
>> > pronounced the /l/ without velarization and clearly the onset of the
>> > second syllable. Â In my speech the /l/ is ambisyllabic, begins
>> > velarized and ends unvelarized.
>> >
>> > Herb
>> >
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