Uvular nasal tap???
I think that this Linguist List post (copied below, just in case) deserves some attention from some phonoloblog reader …
Message 1: Uvular Nasal Tap for /l/
Date: 24-Jan-2006
From: Karen Chung
Subject: Uvular Nasal Tap for /l/
I just watched a video interview by Bill Maher with author Stephen King on Amazon’s new ”Fishbowl” program (http://www.amazon.com/), and was surprised to hear King use a uvular nasal tap for some of his /l/ sounds. I call it a tap because you can hear a kind of clicking saliva sound as the back of the tongue quickly pulls away from the uvula. At first I thought it was a problem with the file or transmission, but it occurs many times, though there are also many ”normal” /l/s.
The following are examples of where the uvular nasal tap /l/ appears. Almost all are prevocalic clear /l/s, though at least one appears in the dark /l/ position, i.e. _all_, though this could be because of linking to _himself_ with a dropped /h/. Some could be dark or clear /l/, as in _persona*l*ity_ :
”You’re *l*ike, well, what can I do, you know?”
”But, you know, I ran into a *l*ady in the supermarket one time…”
”Not *l*iterally, no.”
”I don’t read any of your stuff because I don’t *l*ike to be scared.”
”And she said, ‘No, I *l*iked that, you didn’t write that.”’
”I had _Pet Cemetery_ in the drawer for a *l*ong while…”
”I wrote him a *l*etter…”
”*L*ook, I burn my own CDs…”
”When you *l*ook into the abyss, the abyss *l*ooks back into you.”
”One of the things that we’ve *l*earned…”
”When you’re *l*istening to the Net…”
”a *l*ot of people *l*istening”
”I think George is *l*istening to you and your dea*l*er…”
”…don’t come out of a real happy persona*l*ity…”
”…that had told (normal dark /l/ in ”told”) these *l*ies”
”…he’s doing this a*ll* himself (normal dark /l/ in ”himself”)
”alcoho*l*ics and drugs addicts *l*ie…”
”they *l*ie for practice,…he’ll *l*ie about the time just to keep in practice…”
”It didn’t surprise me that he was *l*ying…”
”Oprah would kinda *l*ike…”
”Once you find out an alcoholic’s *l*ied about one thing…”
”…probably a *l*ot of it’s *l*ies.”
Most but not all of the ”normal” /l/s I heard are dark /l/s:
”Oh, Bi*ll* Maher, be funny!”
”They say, ‘Are you rea*ll*y a scary guy?’…”
”Sure, I’ve got the heart of a sma*ll* boy, I keep it in a jar on my desk.”
”I did this thing ca*ll*ed, ah, _The Shawshank Redemption_…”
”There rea*ll*y aren’t.”
”…too horrib*l*e…”
”I pub*l*ished it, and it was a huge success.”
”See, *l*isten to them.”
”They ca*ll*ed me a technophobe.”
”I’m on the first program of ‘Fishbow*l*…”
”When you open your ce*ll*phone and make a ca*ll*…”
”Not that you HAVE a dea*l*er…”
”Strict*l*y for medicina*l* purposes.”
”Oh, be*l*ieve me…”
”She be*l*ieved it.”
”Most of the fee*l*ing of it was rea*l*…”
”Any kind of art comes out of a conf*l*icted (”personality”, with uvular nasal /l/)”
Has anybody run into anything like this before? Or this is a very personal quirk of Stephen King? I’d be interested in hearing what others think about this.
Karen Chung
http://ccms.ntu.edu.tw/~karchung/
http://lists.topica.com/lists/phonetics/
Linguistic Field(s): Phonetics
Sociolinguistics
I listened to some of the segment and heard what she’s talking about - some sort of quick tap and release during light /l/. It sounds like a secondary constriction, and could be velar or uvular. My guess is that whatever he does with his tongue blade to make a light /l/ ends up displacing the dorsum rearward (because of hydrostasis; i.e. water-ballooning) This may happen with other speakers’ /l/ but most people get no contact out of it. As for its nasality, I couldn’t hear any.
Comment by Bob Kennedy — January 24, 2006 @ 3:13 pm
I used to say my /l/ this way–I don’t know if I’d call it a flap, but it was definitely a uvular nasal. I talk about it a little here: http://literalmind.blogspot.com/2004/07/i-yike-phonowogy.html
Comment by Neal Whitman — January 26, 2006 @ 7:29 pm
Thanks, Bob and Neal — and while you other readers are visiting Neal’s blog, don’t miss this other post on Stephen King’s inability not to overnegate.
Comment by Eric Bakovic — February 1, 2006 @ 7:29 am