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12.3.3 Pre-l Breaking

In Ga, vowels before [ɫ] tend to be diphthongized, so you get a centering offglide between the vowel and [ɫ], which is particularly noticeable afte close (free) vowels and closing diphthongs, as in feel [fiːəɫ], rule [ruːəɫ], foul [faʊəɫ].

feel

rule

foul

 

The rule can be formalized as follows:

Pre-l Breaking: Insert a schwa between a close tense vowel and a coda-final /l/.

Sometimes pre-l breaking applies before ambisyllabic /l/ when preceded by /iː/ or /eɪ/, as in feelingfeel itfailing [ˈfiːəɫiŋ, ˈfiːəɫ ɪt, ˈfeɪəɫɪŋ]. You would therefore not have pre-l breaking in fallingkillingkill it, etc.

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An Introduction to American English Phonetics Copyright © by Ton Broeders and Carlos Gussenhoven is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.