Lateral (phonetics)
A lateral ( Latin laterālis , lateral ; also lateral sound or German side sound ) is a speech sound in which the articulatory overcoming mode is not located on the arrow seam of the oral cavity as in the sagittals , but on the sides.
When laterals are formed, there is usually no noise-causing constriction along the tongue muscle.
The acoustic impression of all lateral sounds is that of an l .
Most lateral sounds are approximants , but there are also fricative laterals:
- Voiced lateral alveolar approximant [ l ]
- velarized alveolar-lateral approximant [ ɫ ]
- retroflexer lateral approximant [ ɭ ]
- palatal lateral approximant [ ʎ ]
- velar lateral approximant [ ʟ ]
- alveolar-lateral flap [ ɺ ]
- voiceless alveolar-lateral fricative [ ɬ ]
- voiced alveolar-lateral fricative [ ɮ ]
There are also connections between plosives and laterals. With these so-called affricates , the closure of the actual plosive does not take place completely, but changes to the subsequent fricative.
The lateral affricates are heterogeneous affricates:
- voiceless alveolar-lateral affricates [ tɬ ]
- aspirated voiceless alveolar-lateral affricates [ tɬʰ ]
- Voiced alveolar-lateral affricates [ dɮ ]
Lateral and r-sounds used to be combined as liquids .