A dialect marker on the road to success: The vertical bar L vertical bar vocalization in German-speaking Switzerland

The present article investigates the extent to which the so-called vocaliza tion of /l/, which is so much a characteristic feature of western Switzerla nd as to be almost a cliche, spreads eastwards. To this end, the realizatio ns of the phoneme /l/ in the speech of five informants representing a local ity in Canton Nidwalden in central Switzerland and a locality in Canton Uri , both areas in which the linguistic atlas of German-speaking Switzerland i ndicates a consonantal realization of /l/, were examined. In the case of the informants from Canton Nidwalden, which is a direct neig hbour of the area where vocalization traditionally, occurs, we find the rat e of vocalization is 80%, whereas in Canton Uri, which lies further east, t his happens in only 20% of the cases where it might be expected. In both ar eas, the articulatory features which often accompany /l/ vocalization diffe r quite clearly from those in the areas in which vocalization is traditiona l. In western Switzerland, vocalization can trigger the rounding of palatal vowels, whereas it merely results in the velarization of preceding /a/ in the dialects of the informants from Canton Nidwalden and Canton Uri. This i s probably a consequence of the differing phonological systems. It might be tentatively suggested that the limited geographical area covered by /l/- v ocalization and the articulatory features which accompany it may be the rea son for the "success" of this feature in German-speaking Switzerland. /l/-v ocalization occurs neither in all dialects nor in the standard language, an d is, therefore, an appropriate way of marking off local speech from that o f other areas.