The influence of the dark /ɫ/ on the F1 and F2 of the preceding vowel in American English

The paper investigates the influence of the coda dark [ɫ] on the formant structure of the preceding vowel in American English. The lateral seems to exert a velarizing effect which is expressed as the shift in the values of F1 and F2. In the case of F1, the direction of the shift depends on its original value, whereas for F2, it is always the same, but its actual extent depends on the vowel. For the two pairs of monopthongs: [ɑː] - [ʌ] and [uː] - [ʊ], the velarization results in the loss of phonemic contrast.