Re: Lateral/vowel coarticulation

2009/2/16 Eric Christopherson <rakko@...>

> Hi, folks. I've been wondering for a long time if any languages feature
> coarticulation of laterals (e.g. /l/) and vowels. I seem to be able to
> produce these, and they sound somewhat distinct, although not as distinct as
> other vowels; but I've searched and never found any mention of this
> occurring in natural languages (either phonemicly or allophonicly).

Well, in PIE one could have a bilabial consonant plus vocalic /l/, which
could have sounded not unlike what you describe (coarticulation of /l/ with
/u/). Don't shoot me if this is wrong, I'm not a native speaker... :-)

However (and this is what prompted me to ask this now), I was just reading
> about Hmong, and it has labials and dentals with (dental) lateral release. I
> have never heard a consonant with lateral release; would the vowel following
> a consonant with lateral release sound like what I described above?
>
I've listened a lot to Hmong songs in my time, and I have never heard any
coarticulation of vowels with laterals. The "lateral release" is more like
English clusters like /pl/ in "place" and "plinth".

Greets
David


--
Idustvok va yentelkvil gifpir, puk gifpir, ivan kitil.