Re: YAEPT: Characterising English /l/s (was: Re: Alborgian/ Borgi)

On May 28, 2008, at 11:33 PM, Tristan McLeay wrote:
> Eric Christopherson wrote:
>> I have never really been able to perceive the difference in my own
>> speech or in that of most other Americans. However, there are some
>> people who have a very "dark"-sounding /l/, which actually sounds
>> like me more like a velar approximant; whether it's lateral or
>> central I'm not sure. Tom Brokaw is the best example I can think of,
>> and I think fellow newsman Robert Bezell too maybe.
It turns out I was wrong about Robert Bezell, I think. I believe what
confused me was that Tom Brokaw often says his name, and it ends in /
l/. The other media person I can think of with a really dark /l/ is
Ira Glass, of the public radio show This American Life. He even
renders the /n/ in "This American Life" as [N], no doubt under the
influence of the following /l/.

>>
>> Does anyone know exactly how to characterize their /l/?
>
> [snip Tristan's description]
Actually, I was just asking about Brokaw and Glass (although I
conflated the latter with Bezell), but your description was very
interesting nonetheless.

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