2. The soft palate is raised and the air goes freely to the mouth.
3. The sides of the tongue are lowered and the air can pass between them and the palate.
4. The vocal cords are brought together and vibrate.
Recommendations.1. Start with Articulation Exercise 111,
6—9.
2. Put the tip of the tongue against the alveolar ridge feeling a firm contact with it.
3. Push the air through the mouth.
Allophones.1. When pronounced before consonants and in final positions ft] is 'dark'* (see Fig. 37). In such cases the back part of the tongue is raised to the soft palate forming a back secondary focus and giving a dark colouring to the sound, eg all, tall, fall, help, salt, milk.
2. When [1] occurs before vowels or the sonorant [j] it is 'clear'. That means that together with the tip of the tongue the front part of the tongue is raised to the hard palate forming the front secondary obstruction (focus), eg leave, silly, value.
When pronounced after a voiceless consonant [1] is partially devoiced, eg little, apple, uncle, asleep.
Comparison with the Russian [ë, ë'].The Russian sonorant
[ë) is formed with the tip of the tongue raised to the upper teeth
and the back of the tongue to the hard palate. The contact be
tween the tip of the tongue and the teeth is not so firm as
between the tip of the tongue and the alveolar ridge in case of
the English HI- J
In such cases the symbol PJ is used to show that the sonorant (Ij is 'dark'