Articulatory Specifics of Lateral Consonants in Bulgarian and Serbian

This study investigates the articulatory and acoustic characteristics of lateral consonants in Bulgarian and Serbian. Framed within a sociolinguistic context, it highlights how language contact and genealogical proximity between Bulgarian and Serbian influence pronunciation—especially in language learning. The analysis compares the place and manner of articulation of the laterals, as well as their formant structures. Key differences include laminal vs. apical articulation, alveo-dental vs. alveolar contact points, and the contrast between soft consonants. Acoustically, the formant behavior of lateral sounds shifts depending on adjacent vowels, leading to either convergence or divergence of F1, F2, and F3. The strong interaction between laterals and neighboring sounds also produces various individual or dialectal articulation variants. The conclusion emphasizes that, despite many shared features, the phonetic differences must be considered when forming an articulatory base for learning either language.