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| Sound change andalternation |
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| Fortition |
| Dissimilation |
L-vocalization, inlinguistics, is a process by which alateral approximant sound such as[l], or, perhaps more often,velarized[ɫ], is replaced by avowel or asemivowel.
There are two types ofl-vocalization:
Examples of L-vocalization can be found in many West Germanic languages, including English, Scots, Dutch, and some German dialects.
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L-vocalization has occurred, sinceEarly Modern English, in certain-al- and-ol- sequences beforecoronal orvelarconsonants, or at the end of a word or morpheme. In these sequences,/al/ became/awl/ and then/ɑul/, while/ɔl/ became/ɔwl/ and then/ɔul/. Both of these merged with existing diphthongs:/ɑu/ as inlaw and/ɔu/ as inthrow.[1]
At the end of a word or morpheme, this produced/ɑul/ inall,ball,call,fall,gall,hall,mall,small,squall,stall,pall,tall,thrall andwall;/ɔul/ incontrol,droll,extol,knoll,poll (meaning a survey of people,)roll,scroll,stroll,swollen,toll, andtroll. The wordshall did not follow this trend, and remains/ʃæl/ today.
Beforecoronal consonants, this produced/ɑul/ inAlderney,alter,bald,balderdash,false,falter,halt,malt,palsy,salt,Wald andWalter;/ɔul/ inbold,cold,fold,gold,hold,molten,mould/mold,old,shoulder (earliersholder),smolder,told, andwold (in the sense of "tract of land"). As withshall, the wordshalt did not follow this trend, and remains/ʃælt/ today.
Before/k/, this produced/ɑul/ inbalk,caulk/calk,chalk,Dundalk,falcon,stalk,talk andwalk;/ɔul/ infolk,Polk, andyolk.
TheGreat Vowel Shift altered the pronunciation of the diphthongs, with/ɑu/ becoming the monophthong/ɔː/, and/ɔu/ raising to/oʊ/.
This L-vocalization established a pattern that would influence thespelling pronunciations of some relatively more recent loanwords likeBalt,Malta,waltz,Yalta, andpolder. It also influencedEnglish spelling reform efforts, explaining theAmerican Englishmold andmolt vs. the traditionalmould andmoult.
Certain words of more recent origin or coining, however, do not have the change and retain short vowels, includingAl,alcohol,bal,Cal,calcium,gal,Hal,mal-,pal,Sal,talc,Val,doll,Moll, andPoll (a nickname for a parrot.)
In-alk and-olk words, the/l/ subsequently disappeared entirely in most accents (with the notable exception ofHiberno-English). This change caused/ɑulk/ to become/ɑuk/, and/ɔulk/ to become/ɔuk/. Even outside Ireland, some of these words have more than one pronunciation that retains the/l/ sound, especially in American English where spelling pronunciations caused partial or full reversal of L-vocalization in a handful of cases:
Words likefault andvault did not undergo L-vocalization, but rather L-restoration, having previously been L-vocalized independently inOld French and lacking the/l/ in Middle English, but having it restored by Early Modern English. The wordfalcon existed simultaneously as homonymsfauco(u)n andfalcon in Middle English. The wordmoult/molt never originally had/l/ to begin with, instead deriving from Middle Englishmout and related etymologically tomutate; the/l/ joined the word intrusively.
The loss of/l/ in words spelt with-alf,-alm,-alve and-olm did not involve L-vocalization in the same sense, but rather the elision of the consonant and usually thecompensatory lengthening of the vowel.
More extensive L-vocalization is a notable feature of certain dialects ofEnglish, includingCockney,Estuary English,New York English,New Zealand English,Pittsburgh English,Philadelphia English andAustralian English, in which an/l/ sound occurring at the end of a word (but usually not when the next word begins with a vowel and is pronounced without a pause) or before a consonant is pronounced as some sort of close back vocoid:[w],[o] or[ʊ]. The resulting sound may not always be rounded. The precise phonetic quality varies. It can be heard occasionally in the dialect of the EnglishEast Midlands, where words ending in -old can be pronounced/oʊd/.K. M. Petyt (1985) noted this feature in the traditional dialect ofWest Yorkshire but said it has died out.[2] However, in recent decades, l-vocalization has been spreading outwards from London and the southeast;[3][4]John C. Wells (1982) argued that it is probable that it would become the standard pronunciation in England over the next one hundred years,[5] which Petyt criticized in a book review.[6]
For some speakers of theGeneral American accent,/l/ before/fv/ (sometimes also before/sz/) may be pronounced as[ɤ̯].[7]
In Cockney, Estuary English, New Zealand English and Australian English, l-vocalization can be accompanied byphonemic mergers of vowels before the vocalized/l/, so thatreal,reel andrill, which are distinct in most dialects of English, are homophones as[ɹɪw].
Graham Shorrocks noted extensive L-vocalization in the dialect ofBolton, Greater Manchester, and commented, "many, perhaps, associate such a quality more with Southern dialects, than with Lancashire/Greater Manchester."[8]
In the accent ofBristol, syllabic/l/ can be vocalized to/o/, resulting in pronunciations like/ˈbɒto/ (forbottle). Byhypercorrection, however, some words originally ending in/o/ were given an/l/: the original name of Bristol wasBristow, but this has been altered by hypercorrection toBristol.[9] In Plymouth L-vocalization is also found, but without turning into the Bristol L afterwards.
African-American English dialects may have L-vocalization as well. However, in these dialects, it may be omitted altogether: fool becomes[fuː]. Some English speakers from San Francisco, particularly those of Asian ancestry, also vocalize or omit/l/.[10]
In colloquial varieties of modernstandard German, including the northernMissingsch, there is a moderate tendency to vocalize coda/l/ into/ɪ̯/, especially in casual speech. This is most commonly found before/ç/ in words likewelche ("which") orsolche ("such"), which merges withSeuche ("disease"). To a lesser degree, the same may also occur before otherdorsal andlabial consonants.
A similar but far more regular development exists in many dialects ofAustro-Bavarian, including Munich and Vienna. Here, etymological/l/ in the coda is vocalized intoi ory in all cases.For example, Standard Germanviel ("much") corresponds tovui inMunich,vey in parts of the Southeast,vii North, West and East ofSalzburg throughout thestate of Salzburg, intoBavaria and intoUpper Austria,[11] especially well pronounced on the German side of the border, andvü inViennese.
In most varieties of theBernese dialect ofSwiss German, historical/l/ in coda position has become[w] and historical/lː/ (only occurring intervocalically) has become[wː], whereas intervocalic/l/ persists. The absence of vocalization was one of the distinctive features of the now-uncommon upper-class variety. It is still missing from dialects spoken in theBernese Highlands and, historically, in theSchwarzenburg area. For example, the Bernese German name of the city ofBiel is pronounced[ˈb̥iə̯w].
This type of vocalization of/l/, such as[sɑwts] forSalz, is recently spreading into many Western Swiss German dialects, centred aroundEmmental.
In early 15th centuryMiddle Scots/al/ (except, usually, intervocalically and before/d/),/ol/ and often/ul/ changed to/au/,/ou/ and/uː/. For example,all changed toaw,colt tocowt,ful tofou (full) and the rare exceptionhald tohaud (hold).
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In early Middle Dutch,/ul/,/ol/ and/al/ merged and vocalized to/ou/ before a dental consonant (/d/ or/t/):
The combination/yl/, which was derived from/ol/ or/ul/ throughumlaut, was not affected by the change, which resulted in alternations that still survive in modern Dutch:
Ablaut variations of the same root also caused alternations, with some forms preserving the/l/ and others losing it:
Analogy has caused it to be restored in some cases, however:
Many speakers of the northern accents of Dutch realize/l/ in the syllable coda as a strongly pharyngealized vowel[ɤ̯ˤ].[12]
L-vocalization increased significantly from 1957, especially among women and people from Holland and Utrecht areas.[13]
In some dialects, instead of vocalization, it is more common to pronounce a clearer [ə] (aSvarabhakti vocal) after a vowel followed by a [l] or [r]:melk (milk) becomes[mel·ək].
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In pre-Modern French,[l] vocalized to[u] in certain positions:
By another sound change, diphthongs resulting from L-vocalization were simplified to monophthongs:
In earlyItalian,/l/ vocalized between a preceding consonant and a following vowel to/j/: Latinflorem > Italianfiore, Latinclavem > Italianchiave.
Neapolitan shows a pattern similar to French, as[l] is vocalized, especially after[a]. For example, vulgar Latinaltu >àutə;alter >àutə;calza >cauzétta (with diminutive suffix). In many areas the vocalized[l] has evolved further into a syllabic[v], thusàvətə,cavəzetta.
West Iberian languages such asSpanish andPortuguese had similar changes to those of French, but they were less common: Latinalter becameautro and laterotro (Spanish) oroutro (Portuguese), whilecaldus remainedcaldo, and there were also some less regular shifts, likevultur tobuitre (Spanish) orabutre (Portuguese).
InPortuguese, historical[ɫ] (/l/ in thesyllable coda) has become[u̯~ʊ̯] for most Brazilian dialects, and it is common in rural communities ofAlto Minho andMadeira. For those dialects, the wordsmau (adjective, "bad") andmal (adverb, "poorly", "badly") are homophones and both pronounced as[ˈmaw]~[ˈmaʊ], while standardEuropean Portuguese prescribes[ˈmaɫ]. The pair is distinguished only by the antonyms (bom[ˈbõ]~[ˈbõw] andbem[ˈbẽj]).
In StandardSerbo-Croatian, historical/l/in coda position has become/o/ and is now so spelled at all times inSerbian and most often inCroatian. For example, the native name ofBelgrade isBeograd (Croatia also has a town ofBiograd). However, in some final positions and in nouns only, Croatian keeps the/l/ by analogy with other forms:stol,vol,sol vs. Serbiansto,vo,so (meaning "table", "ox" and "salt" respectively). This does not apply to adjectives (topao) or past participles of verbs (stigao), which are the same in Standard Croatian as in Standard Serbian.
InSlovene, historical coda/l/ is still spelled asl but almost always pronounced as[w].
InBulgarian, the phoneme/ɫ/ is pronounced as a labio-velar approximant[w] in all positions in certain urban dialects, particularly among young people. For example, words such asлодка, малка are pronounced[ˈwɔtkɐ],[ˈmawkɐ]. This feature is also associated with certain traditional dialects, mostly around Pernik, though it is thought that it evolved independently in the rest of the country. Still, it is more widespread in western dialects.
InPolish andSorbian languages, almost all historical/ɫ/ have become/w/, even in word-initial and inter-vocalic positions. For example,mały ("small" in both Polish and Sorbian) is pronounced by most speakers as[ˈmawɨ] (compareRussianмалый[ˈmalɨj]). The[w] pronunciation, calledwałczenie in Polish, dates back to the 16th century, first appearing among the lower classes. It was considered an uncultured accent until the mid-20th century, when the stigma gradually began to fade. As of the 21st century,[ɫ] is still used by some speakers of eastern Polish dialects, especially inBelarus andLithuania, as well as in Polish-Czech and Polish-Slovakcontact dialects in southern Poland.[14]
InUkrainian andBelarusian, in thesyllable coda, historical/ɫ/ has become[w] (written⟨в⟩ in Ukrainian and⟨ў⟩ in Belarusian, now commonly analyzed as coda allophone of/ʋ/–/v/). For example, the Ukrainian and Belarusian word for "wolf" isвовк[ʋɔwk] andвоўк[vowk] as opposed toRussianвoлк[voɫk]. The same happens in the past tense of verbs: Russianдал[daɫ], Ukrainianдав[daw], Belarusianдаў[daw] "gave". The/ɫ/ is kept at the end of nouns (Russian and Belarusianстoл[stoɫ], Ukrainianстіл[stiɫ] "table") and before suffixes (before historical⟨ъ⟩ in the word middle): Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusianпалка[ˈpaɫka] "stick".
Proto-Uralic *l was vocalized to *j in several positions in theProto-Samoyed language. Several modern Uralic languages also exhibit l-vocalization: