Note: I am on my phone, so linguistic symbols are not intuitive to type, so I typed out phone names in prose
Hello, apologies if this is a dumb question, but I'm reading through Bruce Hayes' "Introductory Phonology", and he provides an example of complementary distribution of the allophones of English /l/; he provides four allophones for analysis: l, velarized l, [voiced l followed by voiceless release] and [velarized l with dental articulation]. He posits that these allophones, being in complementary distribution, are realized in unique environments: [voiced l followed by voiceless release]: after voiceless C [velarized l with dental articulation]: before interdental C Im a footnote, he adds that word-final and after voiceless C are environments that DO NOT overlap since English has no words which end in a voiceless consonant followed by a word-final /l/. However, what of words like "apple" or "tackle", which I understand to be [æp(velarized syllabic l)] and [t^hæk(velarized syllabic l)]?
These words seem to put /l/ word finally AND after a voiceless consonant. Is this due to a light unstressed [ə] prior to the /l/ which prevents the environments from overlapping? Is Hayes' claim an oversimplification? Does it have anything to do with the syllabic nature of /l/ in these environments? Or perhaps rule ordering? Any assistance appreciated!