American Accent pronunciation is appreciated
Dark L is the version of the /l/ consonant that most English speakers use at the ends of syllables, after a vowel, as in tile, hull, school. Depending on your accent, you may have a different kind of /l/ sound in other settings. Usually initial L, as in light, lovely, luscious, is said with the opposite L, that is the Light L. Perhaps you can hear the difference between these initial-light and final-dark pairs: lie—aisle/I’ll, lee—eel, lay—ail, low—ole, law—awl, allow—owl.
Light L is spoken with the centre of the front tip of the tongue behind the upper front teeth on the gum ridge. The sides of the tongue do not touch the side teeth. To feel this side space, make an /l/ sound shape with your tongue and then inhale through the shape. You should feel coolness on the sides of your tongue. If you were to say a series of “la, la, la’s”, your tongue should rise up to the gum ridge and back down in a nice flapping kind of motion.
Dark L is also spoken with the centre of the front tip of the tongue behind the upper front teeth on the gum ridge, however, the back of the tongue also rises up toward the soft palate, also known as the velum. To feel this, say a word like awl. You should be able to hear the “darkening effect” of the rise of the back of the tongue toward the soft palate, which traps the sound further back in the mouth. In some ways it is as if you were saying the /ʊ/; vowel of a word like pull at the same time as you were making the dark L. The IPA symbol for the dark L is either a lower case L with a tilde through it, ɫ —the far more common way of transcribing it—or a lower case L with a superscript velarization diactric after it, which looks like a tiny Greek gamma character, lˠ .
Here are some words with dark L:
Amyl, Anal, Anil, Aril, Aryl, Awol, Axal, Axel
Bail, Ball, Bawl, Bell, Bill, Birl, Boil, Boll, Bowl, Bull, Burl
Call, Carl, Caul, Ceil, Cell, Coal, Coil, Cool, Cowl, Curl
Dahl, Deal,Deil, Dell, Dial, Diel, Dill, Diol, Dirl, Doll, Dual, Duel, Dull
Earl, Egal, Enol, Evil
Fail, Fall, Farl, Feal, Feel, Fell, Fill, Foal, Foil, Fool, Foul, Fowl, Fuel, Full,Furl
Gall, Gaol, Gill, Girl, Goal, Gull
Hail, Hall, Harl, Haul, Heal, Heel, Heil, Hell, Herl, Hill, Hull, Hurl
Idol, Jail, Jarl, Jell, Jill, Jowl, Kail, Keel, Kill
Lall, Leal, Loll, Lull, Mail, Mall, Marl, Maul, Meal, Mell, Merl, Mewl, Mill, Moil, Moll, Mull
Nail, Nill, Noil, Null, Nurl
Obol, Odyl, Opal, Oral,Oval
Pail, Pall, Pawl, Peal, pearl, Peel, Pial, Pill, Poll, Pool, Pull, Purl,
Rail, Real, Reel, Rial, Riel, Rill, Roil, Roll
Sail, Sall, Saul, Seal, Seel, Sell, Shul, Sial, Sill, Soil, Soul
Tail, Tall, Teal, Teel, Tell, Till, Tirl, Toil, Toll, Tool
Vail, Veal, Veil, Vial, Vill, Viol, Virl
Wail, Wall, Waul, Wawl, Weal, Weel, Well, Will, Wool
Yawl, Yell, Yill, Yowl
Zeal, Zill
