the l sound: clear or dark?

[Biopolitics]

Dear forum members,
One sound which is pronounced in different ways in different languages is the l sound. In German, it's always quite clear, except for a couple of southern dialects and Swiss German which are distinguished by a very dark l. I know that the dark l is typical of some other languages, notably of Portuguese and I think of Dutch as well. As for English, it seems to have a mixed pattern: the l is dark at the end of words and before consonants but it is rather clear before vowels, at least in most parts of the UK. It's relatively dark, to my knowledge, in Australia and in most parts of the USA. My question is whether the "darkness" of that sound can somehow reflect the mood, the emotion,or the subtext expressed by a (native) speaker? I was amazed to find out that in Russia and Ukraine the dark and the clear l coexist as two different phonemes that are used to distinguish one word from another. For instance, galka with a dark l is a bird (a jackdaw) while galka with a clear l in it means pebbles on a beach.

 

[SoothingDave]

I'm going to say "no."

I find it difficult, if not impossible, to start to say a word like "light" using the "L" sound from "call."

You really need that tongue movement to get it started.

Trying it the other way (to use the "light" sound at the end of "call") ends up adding another syllable at the end. Like call-uh."

 

[Skrej]

The difference in the light/dark (or hard/soft) sounds is due to a process called 'palatalization', where the middle of the tongue is raised towards the soft palate.

In English, palatalization is allophonic, meaning while the sound may change, the meaning does not. In Russian the process is phonemic - the sound can create a new meaning (phoneme).

You asked specifically about mood or emotional inflections in English with such changes - neither of those are reflected with the palatalization.

I'd wager that the average native English speaker doesn't even register the light/dark difference and would be hard pressed to even recognize it without having it pointed out to them.

I certainly never noticed it myself until I first read about in some chapter on phonetics in a linguistics class. That's how subtle and inconsequential it is in English.