Examples of L-vocalization can be found in many West Germanic languages, including English, Scots, Dutch, and some German dialects.
Early Modern English L-vocalization has occurred, since
Early Modern English, in certain
-al- and
-ol- sequences before
coronal or
velar consonants, or at the end of a word or morpheme. In these sequences, became and then , while became and then . Both of these merged with existing diphthongs: as in
law and as in
throw. At the end of a word or morpheme, this produced in
all,
ball,
call,
fall,
gall,
hall,
mall,
small,
squall,
stall,
pall,
tall,
thrall and
wall; in
control,
droll,
extol,
knoll,
poll (meaning a survey of people,)
roll,
scroll,
stroll,
swollen,
toll, and
troll. The word
shall did not follow this trend, and remains today. Before
coronal consonants, this produced in
Alderney,
alter,
bald,
balderdash,
false,
falter,
halt,
malt,
palsy,
salt,
Wald and
Walter; in
bold,
cold,
fold,
gold,
hold,
molten,
mould/mold,
old,
shoulder (earlier
sholder),
smolder,
told, and
wold (in the sense of "tract of land"). As with
shall, the word
shalt did not follow this trend, and remains today. Before , this produced in
balk,
caulk/calk,
chalk,
Dundalk,
falcon,
stalk,
talk and
walk; in
folk,
Polk, and
yolk. The
Great Vowel Shift altered the pronunciation of the diphthongs, with becoming the monophthong , and raising to . This L-vocalization established a pattern that would influence the
spelling pronunciations of some relatively more recent loanwords like
Balt,
Malta,
waltz,
Yalta, and
polder. It also influenced
English spelling reform efforts, explaining the
American English mold and
molt vs. the traditional
mould and
moult. Certain words of more recent origin or coining, however, do not have the change and retain short vowels, including
Al,
alcohol,
bal,
Cal,
calcium,
gal,
Hal,
mal-,
pal,
Sal,
talc,
Val,
doll,
Moll, and
Poll (a nickname for a parrot.) In
-alk and
-olk words, the subsequently disappeared entirely in most accents (with the notable exception of
Hiberno-English). This change caused to become , and to become . Even outside Ireland, some of these words have more than one pronunciation that retains the sound, especially in American English where spelling pronunciations caused partial or full reversal of L-vocalization in a handful of cases: •
caulk/calk can be or . •
falcon can be , , or . •
yolk can be or .
yoke as is only conditionally
homophonous. Words like
fault and
vault did not undergo L-vocalization, but rather L-restoration, having previously been L-vocalized independently in
Old French and lacking the in Middle English, but having it restored by Early Modern English. The word
falcon existed simultaneously as homonyms and
falcon in Middle English. The word
moult/molt never originally had to begin with, instead deriving from Middle English
mout and related etymologically to
mutate; the joined the word intrusively. The loss of in words spelt with
-alf,
-alm,
-alve and
-olm did not involve L-vocalization in the same sense, but rather the elision of the consonant and usually the
compensatory lengthening of the vowel.
Modern English More extensive L-vocalization is a notable feature of certain dialects of
English, including
Cockney,
Estuary English,
New York English,
New Zealand English,
Pittsburgh English,
Philadelphia English and
Australian English, in which an sound occurring at the end of a word (but usually not when the next word begins with a vowel and is pronounced without a pause) or before a consonant is pronounced as some sort of close back vocoid: , or . The resulting sound may not always be rounded. The precise phonetic quality varies. It can be heard occasionally in the dialect of the English
East Midlands, where words ending in -old can be pronounced .
K. M. Petyt (1985) noted this feature in the traditional dialect of
West Yorkshire but said it has died out. However, in recent decades, l-vocalization has been spreading outwards from London and the southeast;
John C. Wells (1982) argued that it is probable that it would become the standard pronunciation in England over the next one hundred years, which Petyt criticized in a book review. For some speakers of the
General American accent, before (sometimes also before ) may be pronounced as . In Cockney, Estuary English, New Zealand English and Australian English, l-vocalization can be accompanied by
phonemic mergers of vowels before the vocalized , so that
real,
reel and
rill, which are distinct in most dialects of English, are homophones as . Graham Shorrocks noted extensive L-vocalization in the dialect of
Bolton, Greater Manchester, and commented, "many, perhaps, associate such a quality more with Southern dialects, than with Lancashire/Greater Manchester." In the accent of
Bristol, syllabic can be vocalized to , resulting in pronunciations like (for
bottle). By
hypercorrection, however, some words originally ending in were given an : the original name of Bristol was
Bristow, but this has been altered by hypercorrection to
Bristol. In Plymouth L-vocalization is also found, but without turning into the Bristol L afterwards.
African-American English dialects may have L-vocalization as well. However, in these dialects, it may be omitted altogether: fool becomes . Some English speakers from San Francisco, particularly those of Asian ancestry, also vocalize or omit .
German In colloquial varieties of modern
standard German, including the northern
Missingsch, there is a moderate tendency to vocalize coda into , especially in casual speech. This is most commonly found before in words like
welche ("which") or
solche ("such"), which merges with
Seuche ("disease"). To a lesser degree, the same may also occur before other
dorsal and
labial consonants. A similar but far more regular development exists in many dialects of
Austro-Bavarian, including Munich and Vienna. Here, etymological in the coda is vocalized into or in all cases. For example, Standard German ("much") corresponds to in
Munich,
vey in parts of the Southeast,
vii North, West and East of
Salzburg throughout the
state of Salzburg, into
Bavaria and into
Upper Austria, especially well pronounced on the German side of the border, and in
Viennese. In most varieties of the
Bernese dialect of
Swiss German, historical in coda position has become and historical (only occurring intervocalically) has become , whereas intervocalic persists. The absence of vocalization was one of the distinctive features of the now-uncommon upper-class variety. It is still missing from dialects spoken in the
Bernese Highlands and, historically, in the
Schwarzenburg area. For example, the Bernese German name of the city of
Biel is pronounced . This type of vocalization of , such as for
Salz, is recently spreading into many Western Swiss German dialects, centred around
Emmental.
Middle Scots In early 15th century
Middle Scots (except, usually, intervocalically and before ), and often changed to , and . For example, changed to , to , to (full) and the rare exception to (hold).
Middle Dutch In early Middle Dutch, , and merged and vocalized to before a dental consonant ( or ): • "shoulder" < • "old" < • "wood" < • , a name < The combination , which was derived from or through
umlaut, was not affected by the change, which resulted in alternations that still survive in modern Dutch: • "gold", but "golden" • "sheriff", but "guilt, debt" • "would" < , past tense of "to will, shall"
Ablaut variations of the same root also caused alternations, with some forms preserving the and others losing it: • "to hold", past tense • "wanted" <
wolden, past tense of "to want" Analogy has caused it to be restored in some cases, however: • reformed next to older • "to apply", past tense , earlier
gouden Modern Dutch Many speakers of the northern accents of Dutch realize in the syllable coda as a strongly pharyngealized vowel . L-vocalization increased significantly from 1957, especially among women and people from Holland and Utrecht areas. In some dialects, instead of vocalization, it is more common to pronounce a clearer [ə] (a
Svarabhakti vocal) after a vowel followed by a [l] or [r]:
melk (milk) becomes
[mel·ək]. ==Romance languages==