Lateral release (phonetics)
Encyclopedia
In phonetics
, a lateral release is the release of a plosive consonant into a lateral consonant
. Such sounds are transcribed in the IPA with a superscript ⟨l⟩, for example as [dˡ]. In English words such as middle in which, historically, the tongue made separate contacts with the alveolar ridge for the /d/ and /l/ ([ˈmɪdəl]), many speakers today make only one tongue contact. That is, the [d] is laterally released directly into the [l]: [ˈmɪdˡl̩].
In most languages (as in English), laterally-released plosives are straightforwardly analyzed as biphonemic clusters whose second element is /l/. For certain languages, however, it is sometimes claimed that laterally-released consonants are unitary phoneme
s. According to Peter Ladefoged
and Ian Maddieson
, the choice between one or another analysis is purely based on phonological convenience—there is no actual acoustic or articulatory difference between one language's "laterally-released plosive" and another language's biphonemic cluster.
Phonetics
Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that comprises the study of the sounds of human speech, or—in the case of sign languages—the equivalent aspects of sign. It is concerned with the physical properties of speech sounds or signs : their physiological production, acoustic properties, auditory...
, a lateral release is the release of a plosive consonant into a lateral consonant
Lateral consonant
A lateral is an el-like consonant, in which airstream proceeds along the sides of the tongue, but is blocked by the tongue from going through the middle of the mouth....
. Such sounds are transcribed in the IPA with a superscript ⟨l⟩, for example as [dˡ]. In English words such as middle in which, historically, the tongue made separate contacts with the alveolar ridge for the /d/ and /l/ ([ˈmɪdəl]), many speakers today make only one tongue contact. That is, the [d] is laterally released directly into the [l]: [ˈmɪdˡl̩].
In most languages (as in English), laterally-released plosives are straightforwardly analyzed as biphonemic clusters whose second element is /l/. For certain languages, however, it is sometimes claimed that laterally-released consonants are unitary phoneme
Phoneme
In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
s. According to Peter Ladefoged
Peter Ladefoged
Peter Nielsen Ladefoged was an English-American linguist and phonetician who traveled the world to document the distinct sounds of endangered languages and pioneered ways to collect and study data . He was active at the universities of Edinburgh, Scotland and Ibadan, Nigeria 1953–61...
and Ian Maddieson
Ian Maddieson
Ian Maddieson is a linguist at UC Berkeley, an Adjunct Professor Emeritus at the University of New Mexico, Vice-President of the International Phonetic Association, and Secretary of the Association for Laboratory Phonology...
, the choice between one or another analysis is purely based on phonological convenience—there is no actual acoustic or articulatory difference between one language's "laterally-released plosive" and another language's biphonemic cluster.