Voiceless alveolar lateral fricative

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IPA – number	148
IPA – text	ɬ
IPA – image
Entity	ɬ
X-SAMPA	K
Kirshenbaum	s<lat>
Sound sample (help·info)

The voiceless alveolar lateral fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents voiceless dental, alveolar, and postalveolar fricatives is ɬ, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is K. The symbol ɬ is called "belted l" and should not be confused with "l with tilde", [ɫ], which corresponds to a different sound, the velarized alveolar lateral approximant. It should also be distinguished from a voiceless alveolar lateral approximant, although the fricative is sometimes incorrectly often described as a "voiceless l", a description fitting only of the approximant. The sound is relatively rare among the world's languages. It is common among Native American languages, such as Navajo. ^[1] Welsh is perhaps the best-known example of a language with this sound ^[2] (it is indicated in Welsh orthography with a doubled "l").

Contents 1 Features 2 Occurrence 2.1 Semitic languages 3 References 4 See also

[edit] Features

Features of the voiceless alveolar lateral fricative:

• Its manner of articulation is fricative, which means it is produced by constricting air flow through a narrow channel at the place of articulation, causing turbulence.
• Its place of articulation is alveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue against the alveolar ridge, termed respectively apical and laminal.
• Its phonation type is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords.
• It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth.
• It is a lateral consonant, which means it is produced by allowing the airstream to flow over the sides of the tongue, rather than the middle of the tongue.
• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic egressive, which means it is articulated by pushing air out of the lungs and through the vocal tract, rather than from the glottis or the mouth.

[edit] Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Ahtna		dzeł	[tsəɬ]	'mountain'
Aleut	Atkan dialect	hla	[ɬɑ]	'boy'
Avar		лъабго	[ˈɬabgo]	'three'
Dahalo		[ʡáɬi]		'fat'
Cantonese	Taishan dialect	thlaam	[ɬam˧]	'three'
Chickasaw		lhinko	[ɬinko]	'to be fat'
Chukchi		левыт	[ɬeβət]	'head'
Eyak		qe'ł	[qʰɛʔɬ]	'woman'
Hadza		[ɬɛmeja]		'man'
Haida		tla'únhl	[tɬʰʌʔʊ́nɬ]	'six'
Hmong		hli	[ɬi]	'moon'
Inuktitut		example needed	--	--	See Inuit phonology
Kabardian		плъы	[pɬɛ]	'to look'
Kaska		tsį̄ł	[tsʰĩːɬ]	'axe'
Navajo		łaʼ	[ɬaʔ]	'little'
Sandawe		[ɬáː]		'goat'
Sassarese		moltu	[ˈmɔɬtu]	'dead'
Sesotho		ho hlahloba	[ho ɬɑɬɔbɑ]	'to examine'	See Sesotho phonology
St’át’imcets		lhésp	[ɬə́sp]	'rash'
Welsh		llwyd	[ɬʊɪd]	'grey'
Nosu Yi		?	[ɬo˧˩bo˧]	'moon'
Zulu		isihlahla	[isiˈɬaːɬa]	'tree'
Zuni		astemlhan	[ʔastemɬan]	'ten'

[edit] Semitic languages

The sound is conjectured as a phoneme for Proto-Semitic, usually transcribed as ś; it has evolved into Arabic [ʃ], Hebrew, [s]:

Proto-Semitic	Akkadian	Arabic		Phoenician		Hebrew		Aramaic		Ge'ez
ś	s̠	ش	š		š	שׂ	s	שׂ	s	ሰ	ś

Amongst Semitic languages, the sound still exists in contemporary Soqotri. In Ge'ez, it is written with the letter Śawt.

[edit] References

1. ^ Laver, John (1994). Principles of Phonetics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 052145655X. 
2. ^ Ladefoged, Peter (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell, page 203. ISBN 0631198156. 

[edit] See also

• Voiced alveolar lateral fricative
• List of phonetics topics

Consonants (List, table)	See also: IPA, Vowels
Pulmonics Bila​bial Labio​dental Den​tal Alve​olar Post-​alve​olar Retro​flex Pal​a​tal Ve​lar Uvu​lar Pha​ryn​geal Epi​glot​tal Glot​tal Non-pulmonics and other symbols Nasals m ɱ n̪ n ɳ ɲ ŋ ɴ Clicks  ʘ ǀ ǃ ǂ ǁ Plosives p b p̪ b̪ t̪ d̪ t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ ʡ ʔ Implo­­sives  ɓ ɗ ʄ ɠ ʛ Fricatives  ɸ β f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ ç ʝ x ɣ χ ʁ ħ ʕ ʜ ʢ h ɦ Ejec­­tives  pʼ tʼ kʼ qʼ sʼ Approximants  ʋ ɹ ɻ j ɰ Affricates  t͡s d͡z t͡ʃ d͡ʒ t͡ɕ d͡ʑ t͡ʂ d͡ʐ t͡ɬ d͡ɮ p̪͡f Trills ʙ r • ʀ • Other laterals  ɺ • ɫ Flaps & Taps • ѵ ɾ ɽ • • Co-articulated fricatives  ɕ ʑ ɧ Lat. Fricatives ɬ ɮ • • • Co-articulated approximants  ʍ w ɥ Lat. Appr'mants l ɭ ʎ ʟ Co-articulated stops  k͡p ɡ͡b ŋ͡m
This page contains phonetic information in IPA, which may not display correctly in some browsers. [Help] Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a voiced consonant. Shaded areas denote pulmonic articulations judged impossible.