During my last trip to Bulgaria, I had a conversation with a person who was helping me with some paperwork. At one point, answering one of my questions, he told me that I could find more details about the topic we were discussing “on wine.” Although this sounded odd to me, I immediately knew that he meant “online” because I am familiar with the pronunciation changes that have been going on in Bulgaria when it comes to the phoneme L. But I can imagine that for others who don’t speak Bulgarian, this mispronunciation could have been quite confusing.
In recent years, many people in Bulgaria (especially people under 40 years of age) have started rounding their lips and disengaging their tongue when they want to pronounce L. This causes the sound to sound more like the English W. While this is not an issue when they speak Bulgarian, this may cause confusion with a non-Bulgarian interlocutor.
Phonemes and allophones
A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in speech. For example, the word “bad” has three phonemes – /b/, /a/, and /d/. The word “bat” also has three phonemes – /b/, /a/, and /t/. The difference between these two words is in the phonemes /d/ and /t/. If we substitute one phoneme for another, we may change not only the pronunciation of the word, but also its meaning. This particular example of “bat” and “bad” belongs to a category of devoicing final consonants – typical among Slavic speakers – the topic that I discussed in one of my earlier posts.
Phonemes, however, can sometimes be pronounced slightly differently without changing the meaning of the word. For example, in English the phoneme /p/ in the beginning of a word is aspirated [ph]. That is, there is a puff of air that accompanies it. But if the same phoneme is found at the end of a word it has no audible release [p̚]. In most other cases /p/ is pronounced in a plain way [p]. These differences in the same phoneme are called allophones. While substituting one phoneme for another changes both pronunciation and meaning, substituting one allophone for another only changes pronunciation. That is, there may be multiple ways to pronounce the same word, or there may be regional differences in pronunciation. Either way you would still be understood.
The confusion comes when some sounds are different phonemes in one language, but are allophones of the same phoneme in another language. For example, many young Bulgarians have started pronouncing the phoneme /l/ in a way that resembles the English phoneme /w/. But while [l] and [w] are allophones of the phoneme /l/ in Bulgarian, in English they are different phonemes /l/ and /w/.
Dark L [ɫ] vs. light L [l] in English
There are actually two allophones of the phoneme /l/ in English – the light L [l] that comes in the beginning of a word or syllable, and a dark L [ɫ] that comes at the end of a word or a syllable. For example, the L in the word “light” [laɪt] is a light L and, which is slightly different from the dark L in the word “cool” [kuɫ]. However, a nonnative speaker mistakenly using the light L in “cool” [kul] would still cause less confusion than a speaker whose L resembles W because this word will then sound like “coo” [cuw] and therefore change its meaning.
How to produce English phonemes L /l/ and W /w/
In order to make a clear light L [l] in English, you need to touch the tip of your tongue to the alveolar ridge (the bony part above the upper teeth) and keep your lips relaxed and unrounded. To make the W [w] sound, you do not touch the tip of the tongue anywhere and you need to round the lips.
Some of my students claim that they are touching the tip of the tongue behind the teeth, but the sound they are producing still resembles W [w] or a very dark L [ɫ]. If this is your case, you’re probably putting too much tension in the back of the tongue and pulling it backwards. You might also be narrowing the tip of your tongue too much. Try to relax its back a little. You could also try widening the tip/blade of the tongue ever so slightly when touching it to the alveolar ridge.
L /l/ is produced in the same place as the consonants T /t/, D /d/, N /n/, and the Bulgarian R /r/, so this might help you better understand what to do with your tongue.
Be careful not to overapply the L when you learn it because this might lead to swapping sounds and confusion.
Minimal pairs
Minimal pairs are words that differ in only one sound. They can be particularly tricky because if the sound that is supposed to differentiate the two words is unclear, the listener might be confused. Nonnative speakers tend to project the sound they don’t have in their native language to the closest one they are familiar with.
The minimal pairs below may cause particular difficulty to some Bulgarian speakers.
Confusions between L /l/ and W /w/
Below are some minimal pairs that can cause confusion. Note that there are actually more minimal pairs when it comes to these two sounds, but not all of them are problematic. Bulgarians will never confuse L /l/ with W /w/ when the phoneme comes before /i/, /e/, or combinations /ju/, /ja/. Before these sounds the L is softened and hence resembles the light L in English.
| l | /l/ | w | /w/ |
|---|---|---|---|
| lacks | /læks/ | wax | /wæks/ |
| Lauren | /ˈlɔɹ.ən/ | Warren | /ˈwɔɹ.ən/ |
| liar | /laɪɚ/ | wire | /waɪɚ/ |
| lie | /laɪ/ | why | /waɪ/ |
| lied | /laɪd/ | wide | /waɪd/ |
| lier | /ˈlaɪ.ɚ/ | wire | /ˈwaɪ.ɚ/ |
| lies | /laɪz/ | wise | /waɪz/ |
| life | /laɪf/ | wife | /waɪf/ |
| light | /laɪt/ | white | /waɪt/ |
| line | /laɪn/ | wine | /waɪn/ |
| lined | /laɪnd/ | wind | /waɪnd/ |
| lite | /laɪt/ | white | /waɪt/ |
| lurk | /lɝk/ | work | /wɝk/ |
| lurker | /ˈlɝ.kɚ/ | worker | /ˈwɝ.kɚ/ |
Confusions between OL /ɔl/ and OW /oʊ/
While technically the word pairs below are not minimal pairs, they may also cause confusions. In these examples, in addition to the consonant, the vowel can be mispronounced as well. English vowels are notoriously hard to nonnative speakers, and hence, if mispronounced can add to the confusion.
| ol | /ɔl/ | ow | /oʊ/ |
|---|---|---|---|
| all | /ɔl/ | oh | /oʊ/ |
| hall | /hɔl/ | hoe | /hoʊ/ |
| all | /ɔl/ | owe | /oʊ/ |
| tall | /tɔl/ | toe | /toʊ/ |
| haul | /hɔl/ | hoe | /hoʊ/ |
| fall | /fɔl/ | foe | /foʊ/ |
| tall | /tɔl/ | tow | /toʊ/ |
| mall | /mɔl/ | mow | /moʊ/ |
| crawl | /kɹɔl/ | crow | /kɹoʊ/ |
| called | /kɔld/ | code | /koʊd/ |
| vault | /vɔlt/ | vote | /voʊt/ |
| halls | /hɔlz/ | hose | /hoʊz/ |
| toll | /tɔl/ | tow | /toʊ/ |
Words with L and W in Phrases
For those of you who tend to confuse these particular sounds, below are some phrases and sentences that you can use to practice your pronunciation.
Laura likes her long lashes
Lily loves white chocolate
Wendy won the big lottery
Why do you lie?
Allow me to look at your profile
I’m following the white wolf
Follow the white light
My wife is a life coach
He is alive, healthy, and wealthy
I like the old clock
This class lasted for a long time
Let’s go to the cool pool
This blouse is blue
Warren lives alone
Ella has long nails
The last wasp alive is still flying
What a low wall
It’s Lauren’s and Warren’s last weekend here
You look like you want to fly to White Lake
We need to allow long-lasting weekends
It looks like she is lying
I lost my last wallet
Look at the list below
I love to chill and look at the wild lions
Is this house white or just light?
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Adding er to a word ending in a, also using w for a final l. Why would any native English speaker do this? I heard a TV presenter saying
Free furty fowsand pounds… I was shocked.
I meant furty free fowsand pounds, sorry.