What is a dark /l/ (L)???

[anussky]

I need to know what is a Dark l in phonetics!

I have an exam and i cant find my notes!

Thanks a lot!!

[steph_333]

I'm sorry, I don't know what you mean by "dark l" but I think this site might help you.
Pronunciation Key

[stefan_kar]

Velarized alveolar lateral approximant - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[anussky]

thanks anyway!! maybe my teacher use that name and its called different!

[BobK]

Listen to a native speaker (a dictionary site somewhere?) saying 'keel' and 'leek'.
The /l/ in the first is 'dark', the one in the second is 'clear'.

b

[stefan_kar]

In Bulgarian, dark /l/ is called "hard /l/" and clear /l/ is called "soft /l/".

Greek language lacks dark l.

[Charlie Bernstein]

Originally Posted by BobK

Listen to a native speaker (a dictionary site somewhere?) saying 'keel' and 'leek'.
The /l/ in the first is 'dark', the one in the second is 'clear'.

b

Hi, Bob! I believe you, but the l's (and e's and k's) in keel and leek sound exactly the same to me. But I don't know anything about phonetics. Can you explain?

Thanks!

[BobK]

Originally Posted by Charlie Bernstein

Hi, Bob! I believe you, but the l's (and e's and k's) in keel and leek sound exactly the same to me. But I don't know anything about phonetics. Can you explain?

Thanks!

They're (both) made with different part of the tongue. It's not easy to hear; I had the advantage of both hearing it and simultaneously seeing it (on a speech spectrograph). To take just the "l", the clear one (conveniently for my memory, the "l" in "clear" is clear) is made with the sides of the front of the tongue. The dark "l" is made with the sides near the root of the tongue.

The distinction is useful for actors adopting an Eastern European or Russian accent - they just darken "l"s that should be clear: "From Russia with Love."

b

[BobK]

Originally Posted by BobK

... It's not easy to hear; I had the advantage of both hearing it and simultaneously seeing it (on a speech spectrograph). ...

b

That's not quite right. I should have said 'It's not easy for us to hear'. As native speakers of English, we've learnt to ignore the difference - just as a Japanese speaker has learnt to ignore what we regard as a clear distinction between /l/ and /r/. That's what the spectrograph did: it said to me 'Come on; it's obvious - forget your linguistic conditioning.'

b

[cdeb]

A dark L is the one usually comes at the end of a word and we pronounce it somehow heavy and dark so to speak like Bill or Kill or Hill and Light L is the kind of L that comes in the beginning of a word and it is not pronouced Dark but Light for example Love L in this word is somewhat soft and light or for example Letter we don't pronounce the L in this word as heavy and dark as we pronounce L in Hill.
The story is the same for R because we have Dark R and Light R.Like L most of R's that come at the end of a word are Dark and those that come in the beginning are light, can you guess some?