The voiced alveolar lateral affricate is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages.
It is usually in free variation or an allophone of /ɮ/, /t͡ɬ/ or /l/; no known language contrasts [dɮ] and [ɮ].
Consonants written dl in Athabaskan and Wakashan languages are either tenuis affricates, [t͜ɬ] (perhaps slightly voiced allophonically), or have a lateral release, [tˡ] or [dˡ].
In Montana Salish, /l/ may be prestopped, depending on context, in which case it may be realized as [ᵈl] or as an affricate [ᵈɮ̤].
[1] In the Nguni languages [d͡ɮ] occurs after nasals: /nɮ̤/ is pronounced [nd͡ɮ̤], with an epenthetic stop, in at least Xhosa[2] and Zulu.