Features of a voiceless alveolar lateral fricative:[6]
Itsmanner of articulation isfricative, which means it is produced by constricting air flow through a narrow channel at the place of articulation, causingturbulence.
Itsphonation is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords. In some languages the vocal cords are actively separated, so it is always voiceless; in others the cords are lax, so that it may take on the voicing of adjacent sounds.
It is anoral consonant, which means that air is not allowed to escape through the nose.
It is alateral consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream over the sides of the tongue, rather than down the middle.
Lateral fricatives are rare inEuropean languages outside theCaucasus, but it is found notably inWelsh, in which it is written⟨ll⟩.[10] Several Welsh names beginning with this sound (Llwyd[ɬʊɨd],Llywelyn[ɬəˈwɛlɨn]) have been borrowed into English and then retain the Welsh⟨ll⟩ spelling but are pronounced with an/l/ (Lloyd, Llewellyn), or they are substituted with⟨fl⟩ (pronounced/fl/) (Floyd, Fluellen). It was alsofound in certain dialects ofLithuanianYiddish.
Modern South Arabian languages are known for their apparent archaic Semitic features, especially in their system ofphonology. For example, they preserve thelateral fricatives*ś[ɬ] and*ṣ́/ḏ̣[ɬʼ] ofProto-Semitic. Except for the Modern South Arabian languages, every other extant Semitic language has merged Proto-Semitic *s2[ɬ] into one of the two other plain sibilants.[11]
The phoneme/ɬ/ was reconstructed for the most ancientHebrew speech of theAncient Israelites. The orthography ofBiblical Hebrew, however, did not directly indicate it. It is, however, attested by later developments:/ɬ/ was written with⟨ש⟩, but the letter was also used for the sound/ʃ/. Later,/ɬ/ merged with/s/, a sound that had been written only with⟨ס⟩. As a result, three etymologically distinct modern Hebrew phonemes can be distinguished:/s/ written⟨ס⟩,/ʃ/ written⟨ש⟩ (with laterniqqud pointing שׁ), and/s/ evolving from/ɬ/ and written⟨ש⟩ (with laterniqqud pointing שׂ). The specific pronunciation of⟨ש⟩ evolving to/s/ from[ɬ] is known based on comparative evidence since/ɬ/ is the correspondingProto-Semitic phoneme and is still attested in Modern South Arabian languages,[12] and early borrowings indicate it from Ancient Hebrew (e.g.balsam < Greekbalsamon < Hebrewbaśam). The phoneme/ɬ/ began to merge with/s/ in Late Biblical Hebrew, as is indicated by interchange of orthographic⟨ש⟩ and⟨ס⟩, possibly under the influence ofAramaic, and became the rule inMishnaic Hebrew.[13][14] In all Jewish reading traditions,/ɬ/ and/s/ have merged completely, but inSamaritan Hebrew/ɬ/ has instead merged into/ʃ/.[13]
A[ɬ] sound is also found in two of theconstructed languages invented byJ. R. R. Tolkien,Sindarin (inspired by Welsh, which has the sound) andQuenya (even though this language was mostly inspired by Finnish, Ancient Greek, and Latin, none of which have this sound).[15][16] In Sindarin, it is written as⟨lh⟩ initially and⟨ll⟩ medially and finally, and in Quenya, it appears only initially and is written⟨hl⟩.
In free variation with affricate/tɬ/ among some speakers.[32] Also an alternative pronunciation of voiceless lateral approximant[l̥], a realization of cluster/hl/.[33]
Realisation of underlying/hl/.[81] Allophone of/l/ before fortis plosives[82] and utterance finally. In free variation with the globaly more common fricative.[83]
Avoiceless alveolar lateral–median fricative (also known as a "lisp" fricative) is a consonantal sound pronounced with simultaneous lateral and central airflow.
Itsmanner of articulation isfricative, which means it is produced by constricting air flow through a narrow channel at the place of articulation, causingturbulence. However, it does not have the grooved tongue and directed airflow, or the high frequencies, of a sibilant.
Itsphonation is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords. In some languages the vocal cords are actively separated, so it is always voiceless; in others the cords are lax, so that it may take on the voicing of adjacent sounds.
It is anoral consonant, which means that air is not allowed to escape through the nose.
It is acentral consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
It is alateral consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream over the sides of the tongue, rather than down the middle.
Since the IPA letter "ɬ" has been adopted into the standard orthographies for many native North American languages, a capital letter L with belt "Ɬ" was requested by academics and added to theUnicode Standard version 7.0 in 2014 at U+A7AD.[108][109]
^Stanford Phonology Archive (2019). Moran, Steven; McCloy, Daniel (eds.)."PHOIBLE 2.0 - Inventory Ket (SPA 2)".phoible.org. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. Retrieved3 August 2025.
^Nikolaev, Dmitry (2019). Moran, Steven; McCloy, Daniel (eds.)."PHOIBLE 2.0 - Inventory Ter Saami (EA 2494)".phoible.org. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. Retrieved1 August 2025.
^Tereškin, Sergej N. (2002).Йоканьгский диалект саамского языка [Ter dialect of the Sámi language] (PhD) (in Russian). Saint Petersburg: Российский государственный педагогический университет им. А. И. Герцена.
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