Leash and hall have two different 'l' sounds. The first is what English traditionally thinks of as l, but the latter is called dark 'l' and is done with the back of the tongue instead of the tip. Could someone clarify which 'l' this is?

Russian also has light and dark varieties. If theл is word-final or followed by a hard vowel (а,э,ы,о,у), it is dark (similar to the L ofcoal, but even darker); if followed byь or by a soft vowel (я,е,и,ё,ю), it is light (similar toleash, but even lighter...more like lyeesh). Russian has the light and dark distinction not only withл, but with almost all of the consonants. There are only a few consonants that are light only (ч,щ) or dark only (ж,ш). All the others have both pronunciations, which is why there are two series of vowels, hard and soft.—Stephen13:46, 28 August 2008 (UTC)Reply