Sonorants[edit] The pronunciation of /l/ varies by dialect: Received Pronunciation has two main allophones of /l/: the clear or plain [l] (the "light L"), and the dark or velarized [ɫ] (the "dark L"). The clear variant is used before vowels when they are in the same syllable, and the dark variant when the /l/ precedes a consonant or is in syllable-final position before silence. In South Wales, Ire