Liquids
The Liquida (also Liquid, Fließlaut, Schmelzlaut; Pl .: Liquidae, Liquidä, Liquiden ) is in phonetics a lateral sound ( l -sound) or an r -sound, so designated because of the flowing character of its articulation . Although phonetically completely different, liquids are grouped together due to different common phonological characteristics.
properties
Although the two sound groups have little in common in terms of articulation, they behave similarly in many languages. In Czech and Slovak , liquids are the only consonants that can form the syllable peak , i.e. (usually together with other consonants) they can become a syllable without the involvement of a vowel . This can also be seen, for example, in proper names such as that of Alfred Hrdlicka .
Liquids are often not articulated as such, but can take on a vowel character . In such cases one speaks of liquid vocalization. In Middle Bavarian dialects, for example, an l is assimilated to the word inside after a vowel ; thus, for example, a picture becomes Buid or Büd and money becomes Geid or Göd . An r at the end of a word is mostly not pronounced as r in German , but rather to a Schwa or a weakened and differently colored variant of the a- sound, recognizable for example in the words Bauer , mir or in the proper name Maier and its spelling variants.
