L-vocalization


L-vocalization, in linguistics, is a process by which a lateral approximant sound such as, or, perhaps more often, velarized, is replaced by a vowel or a semivowel.

Types

There are two types of l-vocalization:
Examples of L-vocalization can be found in many West Germanic languages, including English, Scots, Dutch, and some German dialects.

Early Modern English

L-vocalization has occurred, since Early Modern English, in certain -al- and -ol- sequences before coronal or velar consonants, or at the end of a word or morpheme. In these sequences, became and then, while became and then. Both of these merged with existing diphthongs: as in law and as in throw.
At the end of a word or morpheme, this produced in all, ball, call, fall, gall, hall, mall, small, squall, stall, pall, tall, thrall and wall; in control, droll, extol, knoll, poll ''roll, scroll, stroll, swollen, toll, and troll. The word shall did not follow this trend, and remains today.
Before coronal consonants, this produced in Alderney, alter, bald, balderdash, false, falter, halt, malt, palsy, salt, Wald and Walter; in bold, cold, fold, gold, hold, molten, mould/mold, old, shoulder, smolder, told, and wold. As with shall, the word shalt did not follow this trend, and remains today.
Before, this produced in balk, caulk/calk, chalk, Dundalk, falcon, stalk, talk and walk; in folk, Polk, and yolk.
The Great Vowel Shift altered the pronunciation of the diphthongs, with becoming the monophthong, and raising to.
This L-vocalization established a pattern that would influence the spelling pronunciations of some relatively more recent loanwords like Balt, Malta, waltz, Yalta, and polder. It also influenced English spelling reform efforts, explaining the American English mold and molt vs. the traditional mould and moult.
Certain words of more recent origin or coining, however, do not have the change and retain short vowels, including Al, alcohol, bal, Cal, calcium, gal, Hal, mal-, pal, Sal, talc, Val, doll, Moll, and Poll
In -alk and -olk words, the subsequently disappeared entirely in most accents. This change caused to become, and to become. Even outside Ireland, some of these words have more than one pronunciation that retains the sound, especially in American English where spelling pronunciations caused partial or full reversal of L-vocalization in a handful of cases:
  • caulk/calk can be or.
  • falcon can be,, or.
  • yolk can be or. yoke as is only conditionally homophonous.
Words like fault and vault did not undergo L-vocalization, but rather L-restoration, having previously been L-vocalized independently in Old French and lacking the in Middle English, but having it restored by Early Modern English. The word falcon existed simultaneously as homonyms faucon and falcon in Middle English. The word moult/molt never originally had to begin with, instead deriving from Middle English mout and related etymologically to mutate; the joined the word intrusively.
The loss of 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 the compensatory lengthening of the vowel.

Modern English

More extensive L-vocalization is a notable feature of certain dialects of English, including Cockney, Estuary English, New York English, New Zealand English, Pittsburgh English, Philadelphia English and Australian English, in which an sound occurring at the end of a word or before a consonant is pronounced as some sort of close back vocoid:, or. The resulting sound may not always be rounded. The precise phonetic quality varies. It can be heard occasionally in the dialect of the English East Midlands, where words ending in -old can be pronounced. K. M. Petyt noted this feature in the traditional dialect of West Yorkshire but said it has died out. However, in recent decades, l-vocalization has been spreading outwards from London and the southeast; John C. Wells argued that it is probable that it would become the standard pronunciation in England over the next one hundred years, which Petyt criticized in a book review.
For some speakers of the General American accent, before may be pronounced as.
In Cockney, Estuary English, New Zealand English and Australian English, l-vocalization can be accompanied by phonemic mergers of vowels before the vocalized, so that real, reel and rill, which are distinct in most dialects of English, are homophones as.
Graham Shorrocks noted extensive L-vocalization in the dialect of Bolton, Greater Manchester, and commented, "many, perhaps, associate such a quality more with Southern dialects, than with Lancashire/Greater Manchester."
In the accent of Bristol, syllabic can be vocalized to, resulting in pronunciations like . By hypercorrection, however, some words originally ending in were given an : the original name of Bristol was Bristow, but this has been altered by hypercorrection to Bristol. 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. Some English speakers from San Francisco, particularly those of Asian ancestry, also vocalize or omit.

German

In colloquial varieties of modern standard German, including the northern Missingsch, there is a moderate tendency to vocalize coda into, especially in casual speech. This is most commonly found before in words like welche or solche, which merges with Seuche. To a lesser degree, the same may also occur before other dorsal and labial consonants.
A similar but far more regular development exists in many dialects of Austro-Bavarian, including Munich and Vienna. Here, etymological in the coda is vocalized into i or y in all cases.
For example, Standard German viel corresponds to vui in Munich, vey in parts of the Southeast, vii North, West and East of Salzburg throughout the state of Salzburg, into Bavaria and into Upper Austria, especially well pronounced on the German side of the border, and vü in Viennese.
In most varieties of the Bernese dialect of Swiss German, historical in coda position has become and historical has become, whereas intervocalic 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 the Bernese Highlands and, historically, in the Schwarzenburg area. For example, the Bernese German name of the city of Biel is pronounced.
This type of vocalization of, such as for Salz, is recently spreading into many Western Swiss German dialects, centred around Emmental.

Middle Scots

In early 15th century Middle Scots , and often changed to, and. For example, all changed to aw, colt to cowt, ful to fou and the rare exception hald to haud.

Middle Dutch

In early Middle Dutch,, and merged and vocalized to before a dental consonant :
  • schouder "shoulder" < schulder
  • oud "old" < ald
  • hout "wood" < holt
  • Wouter, a name < Walter
The combination, which was derived from or through umlaut, was not affected by the change, which resulted in alternations that still survive in modern Dutch:
  • goud "gold", but gulden "golden"
  • schout "sheriff", but schuld "guilt, debt"
  • zouden "would" < zolden, past tense of zullen "to will, shall"
Ablaut variations of the same root also caused alternations, with some forms preserving the and others losing it:
  • houden "to hold", past tense hield
  • wouden "wanted" < wolden, past tense of willen "to want"
Analogy has caused it to be restored in some cases, however:
  • wilden reformed next to older wouden
  • gelden "to apply", past tense golden, earlier ''gouden''

    Modern Dutch

Many speakers of the northern accents of Dutch realize in the syllable coda as a strongly pharyngealized vowel.
L-vocalization increased significantly from 1957, especially among women and people from Holland and Utrecht areas.
In some dialects, instead of vocalization, it is more common to pronounce a clearer after a vowel followed by a or : melk becomes .

Romance languages

French

In pre-Modern French, vocalized to in certain positions:
  • between a vowel and a consonant, as in Vulgar Latin caldu "warm, hot" > Old French chaud
  • after a vowel at the end of a word, as in Vulgar Latin bellu > Old French bel > Old French beau "beautiful"
By another sound change, diphthongs resulting from L-vocalization were simplified to monophthongs:
  • Modern French chaud
  • Modern French beau

    Italo-Romance languages

In early Italian, vocalized between a preceding consonant and a following vowel to : Latin florem > Italian fiore, Latin clavem > Italian chiave.
Neapolitan shows a pattern similar to French, as is vocalized, especially after. For example, vulgar Latin altu > àutə; alter > àutə; calza > cauzétta. In many areas the vocalized has evolved further into a syllabic, thus àvətə, cavəzetta.