Syllabic laterals

Laterals can form syllables by themselves, usually as an alternative to the sequence [əl]. Syllabic consonants are transcribed with the diacritic placed below the relevant symbol. The clearest cases are those where the consonant at the start of the same syllable is one which can be released laterally, which involves releasing not the front of the tongue, but the side of the tongue.

Compare, for instance, ‘bottle’ with and without a syllabic lateral: . To make the version with , make sure the tongue releases from the alveolar ridge, allowing a short period of vocalicity before it is raised again to make [l]. To make the syllabic version, , keep the tongue on the alveolar ridge and lower the tongue on one side, allowing air to pass out laterally.

Syllabic laterals are generally found word finally: ‘bottle’, ‘little’, ‘handle’, ‘facial’, etc. For many verbs, the syllabic is possible even when a suffix is attached, as in ‘pickle’, ‘pickling’, which can be rather than or . But they can also, in some varieties, occur word medially, as in ‘Italy’ .

The distribution of syllabic laterals is similar to that of syllabic nasals, which are discussed in.