Metrical/syllabic factors in English allophony: Dark /l/

Abstract

This paper presents a single‐subject case study illustrating the need to closely examine effects of dialect from syllable position on l‐colouring, and the effects of domain‐initial strengthening in General American English. Most investigators report lighter /l/ tokens in syllable onsets and darker tokens in coda positions in isolated words. The present study demonstrates an enhanced darkened onset /l/ in front vowel prosodic word (PW) boundaries, but lighter codas at PW‐internal boundaries. We address the importance for clinicians of recognizing the impact of prosody on restructuring syntactic boundaries and its consequent effects on /l/ articulation.

• Articulatory phonology
• /l/‐allophony
• prosody
• resonance