| Lateral release | |
|---|---|
| ◌ˡ | |
| IPA number | 426 |
| Encoding | |
| Entity(decimal) | ˡ |
| Unicode(hex) | U+02E1 |
Inphonetics, alateral release is the release of aplosive consonant into alateral consonant. Such sounds are transcribed in theIPA with a superscript⟨l⟩, for example as[tˡ] in Englishspotless[ˈspɒtˡlɨs]. In Old English words such asmiddle/middel in which, historically, the tongue made separate contacts with the alveolar ridge for the/d/ and/l/,[citation needed][ˈmɪdəl], many speakers today make only one tongue contact. That is, the/d/ is laterally released directly into the/l/:[ˈmɪdˡl̩]. While this is a minor phonetic detail in English (in fact, it is commonly transcribed as havingno audible release:[ˈspɒt̚lɨs],[ˈmɪd̚l̩]), it may be more important in other languages.
In most languages (as in English), laterally-released plosives are straightforwardly analyzed as biphonemic clusters whose second element is/l/. In theHmong language, however, it is sometimes claimed that laterally-released consonants are unitaryphonemes. According toPeter Ladefoged andIan Maddieson,[1][page needed] the choice between one or another analysis is purely based on phonological convenience—there is no actual acoustic or articulatory difference between one language's "laterally-released plosive" and another language's biphonemic cluster.
