/L/ velarisation as a continuum

Abstract

In this paper, we present a production study to explore the controversial question about /l/ velarisation. Measurements of first (F 1 ), second (F 2 ) and third (F 3 ) formant frequencies and the slope of F 2 were analysed to clarify the /l/ velarisation behaviour in European Portuguese (EP). The acoustic data were collected from ten EP speakers, producing trisyl-labic words with paroxytone stress pattern, with the liquid consonant at the middle of the word in onset, complex onset and coda positions. Results suggested that /l/ is produced on a continuum in EP. The consistently low F 2 indicates that /l/ is velarised in all syllable positions, but variation especially in F 1 and F 3 revealed that /l/ could be “more velarised” or “less velarised” dependent on syllable positions and vowel contexts. These findings suggest that it is important to consider different acoustic measures to better understand /l/ velarisation in EP.