I fear terminological confusion between velarised alveolar laterals,
vocalised /l/s, and actual velar/uvular laterals is going to make this issue
tough to tease apart.
I've certainly heard syllable final and possibly syllable initial allophones
of /l/ in American English which appear to involve strong central
velar/uvular constriction and no alveolar contact. I don't remember the
regional accents of the speakers. Attempts to reproduce it myself indicated
that actual central velar/uvular contact was not necessary and airflow might
have been primarily lateral, but I can't say whether this realisation is the
normal realisation or my own failure to adequately reproduce the manner of
articulation.
One might be tempted to classify it as a vocalised allophone of a system
which specifies /l/ as being strongly velarised... the problem being that
syllable initial occurrences of that allophone would go against the usual
pattern for vocalisation of laterals in any variety of English.
cheers
Duncan
--
Dr Duncan Markham
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