Delateralization

Delateralization is a replacement of a lateral consonant by a central consonant.

Yeísmo (Romance languages)

Arguably, the best known example of this sound change is yeísmo, which occurs in many Spanish and some Galician dialects.

In accents with yeísmo, the palatal lateral approximant /ʎ/ merges with the palatal approximant /ʝ/ which, phonetically, can be an affricate [ɟ͡ʝ] (word-initially and after /n/), an approximant [ʝ̞] (in other environments) or a fricative [ʝ] (in the same environments as the approximant, but only in careful speech).

In Romanian, the palatal lateral approximant /ʎ/ merged with /j/ centuries ago. The same happened to the historic palatal nasal /ɲ/, although that is an example of lenition.

In French, ⟨il⟩ (except in the word "il" [il]) and ⟨ill⟩ (usually followed by "e"; exceptions include "ville" [vil]) are usually pronounced [ij]. It generally occurs word- or morpheme-finally. For example, travail "work" (noun) [tʁavaj], gentil "kind" masculine singular [ʒɛ̃tij], travaillait "(he/she/it) used to work" [tʁavaje], gentille "kind" feminine singular [ʒɛ̃tij].

Furthermore, when a French word ending in al is pluralized, rather than becoming als, it becomes aux. For example, un animal spécial "a special animal" > des animaux spéciaux "(some) special animals".

Turkish

Delateralisation can occur in Turkish. Its one lateral is [l], which can become [j] after [i]. For example, değil "not" is pronounced [de.ij].

English

When [l] appears word-finally, or after a vowel and before a consonant, it can become [w]. For example, little [ˈlɪ.tʰl̩] > [ˈlɪ.tʰw̩], bell [bɛl] > [bɛw], help [hɛlp] > [hɛwpʰ].

Polish

The Polish letter Ł represents the sound [w]. This is evidence of a delateralised sound.

Arabic Ḍād

Another known example of delateralization is the sound change that happened to the Arabic ḍād, which, historically, was a lateral consonant, either a pharyngealized voiced alveolar lateral fricative [ɮˤ]^ⓘ or a similar affricated sound [d͡ɮˤ] or [dˡˤ].^[1][2] The affricated form is suggested by loans of ḍ into Akkadian as ld or lṭ and into Malaysian as dl.^[3] However, some linguists, such as the French orientalist André Roman supposes that the letter was actually a pharyngealized voiced alveolo-palatal sibilant [ʑˤ], similar to the Polish ź, which is not a lateral sound.^[1][2][4]

In modern Arabic, there are three possible realizations of this sound, all of which are central:^[3]

• Pharyngealized voiced alveolar stop [dˤ]^ⓘ
• Pharyngealized voiced dental stop [d̪ˤ]
• Velarized voiced dental stop [d̪ˠ].

References