Letter Ł (L underscore)

Letter ł, referred to as barred l underscore, is a sound that starts out like barred-l ł but ends with the vocal folds vibrating, like plain l. Unlike plain l, friction continues even when the vocal folds are vibrating. This sound occurs only at the start of a syllable.

Click on a video below to see and hear Mrs. Irene Arnold pronouncing words with Ł (L underscore).

Click below to hear Mrs. Irene Arnold illustrating the difference between ł and ł at the start of syllables.

Tanacross contains five consonants which are represented in the practical orthography with an underscore: ł, th, s, sh, x. These consonants have been described as semi-voiced or partially voiced fricatives. They can be informally described as beginning voiceless and transitioning to a voiced sound.

The voicing transition can be seen quite clearly in the following spectrogram for łig' 'my dog'. Voice bars are not present at the beginning of the lateral fricative ł, but they are present at the end.



For other segments the voicing transition is not quite so evident. For example, compare the voiceless dental fricative th in the following spectrogram for na'ihthet   'I am standing'



with the semi-voiced fricative in the spectrogram of na'ethet   's/he is standing'.



No clear evidence of voicing is present in either spectrogram. The distinguishing feature is the presence of a much greater degree of high-amplitude noise in the voiceless segment. It is this observation which leads to the characterization of the voiceless segments as fortis, and the semi-voiced and voiced fricatives as lenis.

For more information see Holton (2001) Fortis and lenis fricatives in Tanacross Athapaskan. International Journal of American Linguistics.

similar sounds

L   Ł  

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