Consonants L

In most urban NfldE, as well as in areas of the province settled by the southwest English, postvocalic /l/ is articulated as a “dark” or velar contoid, as is the norm elsewhere in North America. In some areas of English-settled Newfoundland, this dark /l/ is variably vocalized, or deleted. Deletion seems most frequent after low vowels (e.g. fall) and in consonant clusters (e.g. myself); occasionally, in clusters, /l/ is deleted outside of syllable-coda position, e.g. in the word only. In other environments (e.g. coal, fell), vocalization to a mid to high back rounded [o], [ʊ] , or unrounded [ɤ] occurs variably. While deletion and vocalization appear primarily a rural phenomenon in Newfoundland, they are also observable among younger residents of the capital, St. John’s. The traditional speech of St. John’s and the Irish Avalon, however, is characterized by a “clear” or palatal articulation of postvocalic /l/, as are conservative varieties spoken on the southwest coast of the island, an area characterized by French, Scots and Irish settlement. Today, in all these areas, palatal variants are most associated with older speakers.