Dear all,
I have little to contribute to this discussion in the way of hard facts I've
observed myself, though I think it seems likely from the descriptions that a
vocalised /l/ is in fact what is being referred to (at least some of the
time...).
Jim Scobbie at QMUC in Edinburgh has been doing some research on
/l/-vocalisation and has found that it is much less audible as vocalised if
the lips are unrounded. In a recent paper at the Language Variation and
Change conference (University of Sheffield, UK, Sep 11-14th), he presented
some data on an American English speaker who vocalised frequently (even in
some onset positions, if I remember right) but did not lip-round (related
research appears in a paper in the Proceedings of the 15th ICPhS, with Alan
Wrench - I think this also appears online on Jim's webpage). I suggest that
Martin get in touch with Jim for some more details if he doesn't read this
list.
I would also like to add that onset /l/ is dark in some dialects of English:
many northern English dialects (but not those of the north-east around
Newcastle) have velarised onsets, as do some Scottish varieties, and also
Australian English. I believe that Wells (1982) Accents of English comments
on the possible pharyngealisation of Australian /l/.
With regard to Kentsuke's p.c. post about the development of this in the US
as being an L2 feature, I think it is possibly more likely that this just
stems from 'natively' dark /l/ in some of the British English varieties
mentioned above which made up the English of those settling the US, though
L2 influence never hurts.
Mark Jones
Department of Linguistics
University of Cambridge
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