Editing Lateral consonant (section)

==Examples==

English has one lateral phoneme: the lateral approximant {{IPA|/l/}}, which in many accents has two [[allophone]]s. One, found before vowels (and /j/) as in ''lady'' or ''fly'' (or ''value''), is called ''clear l'', pronounced as the [[alveolar lateral approximant]] {{IPA|[l]}} with a "neutral" position of the body of the tongue. The other variant, so-called ''dark l'', found before consonants or word-finally, as in ''bold'' or ''tell'', is pronounced as the [[velarized alveolar lateral approximant|uvularized alveolar lateral approximant]] {{IPA|[ɫ]}} with the tongue assuming a spoon-like shape with its back part raised, which gives the sound a {{IPA|[w]}}- or {{IPA|[ʟ]}}-like resonance. In some languages, like [[Albanian language|Albanian]], those two sounds are different phonemes. [[Gheg Albanian#Malsia Albanian|Malsia e Madhe Gheg Albanian]] and [[Salamina Island|Salamina]] [[Arvanitika]] even have the three-way distinction of laterals {{IPA|/[[Voiced dental, alveolar and postalveolar lateral approximants|l]]/}}, {{IPA|/[[Voiced palatal lateral approximant|ʎ]]/}} and {{IPA|/[[Velarized alveolar lateral approximant|ɫ]]/}}.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Dedvukaj|first1=Lindon|last2=Ndoci|first2=Rexhina|title=Linguistic variation within the Northwestern Gheg Albanian dialect|journal=Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America|publisher=[[Linguistic Society of America]]|doi=10.3765/plsa.v8i1.5501|volume=8|number=1|year=2023|doi-access=free|page=7}}.</ref> [[East Slavic languages]] contrast {{IPA|[ɫ]}} and {{IPA|[lʲ]}} but do not have [l].

In many British accents (e.g. [[Cockney#Cockney speech|Cockney]]), dark {{IPA|[ɫ]}} may undergo [[l-vocalization|vocalization]] through the reduction and loss of contact between the tip of the tongue and the alveolar ridge, becoming a rounded back vowel or glide. This process turns ''tell'' into {{IPA|[tɛɰ]}}, as must have happened with ''talk'' {{IPA|[tɔːk]}} or ''walk'' {{IPA|[wɔːk]}} at some stage. A similar process happened during the development of many other languages, including [[Brazilian Portuguese]], [[Old French]], and [[Polish language|Polish]], in all three of these resulting in [[voiced velar approximant]] {{IPA|[ɰ]}} or [[voiced labio-velar approximant]] {{IPA|[w]}}, whence [[Modern French]] ''sauce'' as compared with [[Spanish language|Spanish]] ''salsa'', or Polish ''Wisła'' (pronounced {{IPA|[viswa]}}) as compared with English ''[[Vistula]]''.

In central and Venice dialects of [[Venetian language|Venetian]], intervocalic {{IPA|/l/}} has turned into a semivocalic {{IPA|[e̯]}}, so that the written word ''ła bała'' is pronounced {{IPA|[abae̯a]}}. The orthography uses the letter [[ł]] to represent this phoneme (it specifically represents not the {{IPA|[e̯]}} sound but the phoneme that is, in some dialects, {{IPA|[e̯]}} and, in others, {{IPA|[l]}}).

Many aboriginal [[Australian languages]] have a series of three or four lateral approximants, as do various dialects of [[Irish language|Irish]]. Rarer lateral consonants include the retroflex laterals that can be found in many [[languages of India]]{{citation needed|date=November 2012}} and in some [[Swedish dialects]], and the [[voiceless alveolar lateral fricative]] {{IPA|/ɬ/}}, found in many [[Indigenous languages of the Americas|Native North American languages]], [[Welsh phonology|Welsh]] and [[Zulu language|Zulu]]. In [[Adyghe language|Adyghe]] and some [[Athabaskan languages]] like [[Hän language|Hän]], both voiceless and voiced alveolar lateral fricatives occur, but there is no approximant. Many of these languages also have lateral [[affricate]]s. Some languages have palatal or velar voiceless lateral fricatives or affricates, such as [[Dahalo language|Dahalo]] and [[Zulu language|Zulu]], but the IPA has no symbols for such sounds. However, appropriate symbols are easy to make by adding a lateral-fricative belt to the symbol for the corresponding lateral approximant (see below). Also, a devoicing diacritic may be added to the approximant.

[[File:Lateral fricatives.svg|thumb|Lateral fricative letters]]

Nearly all languages with such lateral obstruents also have the approximant. However, there are a number of exceptions, many of them located in the [[Pacific Northwest]] area of the United States. For example, [[Tlingit language|Tlingit]] has {{IPA|/tɬ, tɬʰ, tɬʼ, ɬ, ɬʼ/}} but no {{IPA|/l/}}.{{efn|Some older Tlingit speakers have {{IPA|[l]}}, as an allophone of {{IPA|/n/}}. This can also be analyzed as phonemic {{IPA|/l/}} with an allophone {{IPA|[n]}}.}} Other examples from the same area include [[Nuu-chah-nulth language|Nuu-chah-nulth]] and [[Kutenai language|Kutenai]], and elsewhere, [[Mongolian language|Mongolian]], [[Chukchi language|Chukchi]], and [[Kabardian language|Kabardian]].

[[Standard Tibetan]] has a [[voiceless alveolar lateral approximant|voiceless lateral approximant]], usually romanized as ''lh'', as in the name [[Lhasa (prefecture-level city)|Lhasa]].

A [[uvular lateral approximant]] has been reported to occur in some speakers of [[American English]].{{sfnp|Cruttenden|2014|p=221}}

[[Pashto language|Pashto]] has a [[retroflex lateral flap]] that becomes [[voiced retroflex approximant]] when it is at the end of a syllable and a word.{{Citation needed|date=April 2008}}

There are a large number of lateral [[click consonant]]s; 17 occur in [[!Xóõ]].

Lateral [[trill consonant|trills]] are also possible, but they do not occur in any known language. They may be pronounced by initiating {{IPA|[ɬ]}} or {{IPA|[ɮ]}} with an especially forceful airflow. There is no symbol for them in the IPA. They are sometimes used to imitate [[bird call]]s, and they are a component of [[Donald Duck talk]].