Topic-111: Laterals As an important articulatory gesture, the central–lateral opposition can be applied to all these manners of articulation producing a lateral stop and a lateral fricative as well as a lateral approximant, which is by far the most common form of lateral sound. The only English lateral phoneme, at least in British English, isl with allophones l as in led [l ɛd] and [ɫ] as in bell b. Inmost forms of American English, initial l has more velarization than is typically heard in British English initial l. In all forms of English, the air flows freely without audible friction, making this sound a voiced alveolar lateral approximant. It maybe compared with the sound [ ɹ] in red d, which is for many people a voiced alveolar central approximant. Laterals are usually presumed to be voiced approximants unless a specific statement to the contrary is made.
