Dark-L vs Light-L

An L at the beginning of a word is commonly a "light-L" whereas an L at the end of a word is commonly a "dark-L" - pulled back in the throat.

It's commonly to use a dark-L in all positions in Russian/Slavic and Scottish accents.

So what's really common is for people to use a different L at the beginning of a word versus what they use at the end of a word.

So the phonetic symbol for an L is, conveniently enough, an /l/.

There are a couple different ways to talk about the dark L. This is what some people will commonly call the light L, so the dark L is sometimes written as that L, but with an extra little sort of wing-ding on the bottom that would actually go below the line. And that means that it's retroflexed, meaning that it happens further back.

Or another way that it's also explained is with that same L, but then you put this little wavy line through it, and that wavy line means pharyngealized or velarized. And your velum is your soft pallet, at the back of the mouth, up higher, and pharyngealized is your pharynx, your throat. So basically you're pulling it up and or back, so that's where that L will tend to take place.

And often times people even do a shadow of an L. An L is what is called an approximant.

So there are fricatives, which are a tighter version like zh is a fricative, and yyy would be more like an approximant. I just opened it up a little bit. So for example, the other approximants that are familiar to a lot of people are the Y sound yes, and also the r sound as in red. Sometimes approximants are called semivowels. So an L is an approximant. It's a lateral approximate, meaning it goes around the side of the tongue LLL.

Unless you're Britney Spears, and you go out of your mouth for an L.

otherwise usually it goes around the side of the tongue, with the tongue right there at the gum ridge right behind the upper teeth LLL. And if you pull the tongue back into the throat more, LLL, sort of swallowing that L, LLL, and possibly the tongue touching further back or possibly the tongue not touching at all and just being drawn back LLL, that is more of a dark L sound, as many people would call it.

So we have this that usually happens at the beginnings of words, and these that usually would happen at the ends of words. So you would have a word like LIKE and then say FEEL.

And often times the L at the end of the word FEEL, happens a little bit further back, is a darker vowel.

Dark L's and Accents

And in fact this sort of Darker vowel sensation is a part of what's really important for learning the feelings of a Russian accent. If you can do that dark L and really pull it back, LLL, it's a big key to doing a Russian accent. FEEL LIKE LLL. Really pulling it back there helps with that sense of placement for Russian.

You'll also have this occurring in other positions, like at the beginning of a word in Scottish accents, for example. "I like that." LLL. It'll occur there initially.

Whereas for most most English speakers, it tends to occur primarily at the ends of words.

For example I grew up in a small town called Newell, Iowa, and I used to work at the swimming pool, so we would answer the phone saying NeweLL PooL. Really that L was so almost darkened that it was almost non-existent more. NeweLL PooL. It's like the shadow of an L. So there it was really turning much more vowel-like.