Re: [QUESTION] What does IPA L-tilde stand for?
| From: | Lars Henrik Mathiesen <thorinn@...> |
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| Date: | Monday, April 29, 2002, 12:35 |
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> Date: Mon, 29 Apr 2002 06:08:42 EDT
> From: David Peterson <DigitalScream@...>
>
> In a message dated 04/29/02 2:58:46 AM, ijzeren_jan@YAHOO.CO.UK writes:
>
> << When browsing through the set of IPA-characters, I found a
> strange thing: l (lowercase) with tilde. There is no description of
> it, and the X-SAMPA equivalent [5] is somehow missing in the X-SAMPA
> table. Does anyone know what kind of sound this is supposed to be?
> >>
>
> Velarized [l]. How this is different from the velar "l" (capital
> l, [L] in IPA), I have no idea.
I think LATIN SMALL LETTER L WITH TILDE is in Unicode as a precomposed
character because it's used to write Polish. The tilde also appears as
a combining diacritical mark, and that should normally be used for the
IPA diacritic (which means velarized or pharyngealized).
However, some implementions of Unicode will insist on using a combined
glyph if it exists, so the Polish l-with-tilde gets included in the
IPA set.
The sound is also known as the English dark l --- it's an alveolar
lateral approximant with a secondary velar constriction. Being quite
common, it got its own symbol in X-SAMPA.
On the other hand, for a velar l (IPA small caps L, X-SAMPA L\) it's
the lateral articulation that is velar, giving an even darker sound.
However, I don't think that it occurs very frequently in natlangs.
Lars Mathiesen (U of Copenhagen CS Dep) <thorinn@...> (Humour NOT marked)
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