Allophonic features of /l/ in three English accents

Abstract

It is commonly assumed that /l/ is consistently realised as the clear (palatalised) variant in Welsh and Irish accents of English, while the dark (velarised) variant is realised in Scottish accents. The clear /l/ acoustically lowers the frequencies of the first formant (F1) and raises those of the second formant (F2), while the dark /l/ is the other way around. This study examines allophonic features of /l/ in these three accents of English by measuring the frequencies of F1 and F2 of /l/ from the original recordings. The results of F2 confirm the above-mentioned differences among the accents (clear /l/ in Welsh and Irish accents and dark /l/ in Scottish accents), while those of F1 do not. Furthermore, this paper demonstrates that onset /l/ is slightly, but consistently, clearer (lower F1 frequencies and higher F2 frequencies) than coda /l/, although in these three accents clear /l/ and dark /l/ are not in complementary distribution as in Received Pronunciation (RP).