Ll/ll is adigraph that occurs in severallanguages.
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InEnglish,⟨ll⟩ often represents the same sound as single⟨l⟩:/l/. The doubling is used to indicate that the preceding vowel is (historically) short, or that the "l" sound is to be extended longer than a single⟨l.⟩ would provide (etymologically, inlatinisms coming from agemination). Different English language traditions use⟨l⟩ and⟨ll⟩ in different words: for example the past tense form of "travel" is spelt "travelled" in British English but "traveled" in American English. See also:Doubled consonants.⟨ll⟩ is also used in syllable-coda position in monosyllabic words or compounds derived from them, such as "will", "mall", and "killjoy"
InWelsh,⟨ll⟩ stands for avoiceless alveolar lateral fricative sound (IPA:[ɬ]). This sound is very common inplace names inWales because it occurs in the wordllan, for example,Llanelli, where the⟨ll⟩ appears twice, orLlanfairpwllgwyngyll, where (in the long version of the name) the⟨ll⟩ appears five times – with two instances ofllan and two consecutive⟨ll⟩ in-drobwllllan-.
In Welsh,⟨ll⟩ is a separatedigraph letter[2] from⟨l⟩ (e.g.,lwc sorts beforellaw). In modern Welsh this, and other digraph letters, are written with two symbols but count as one letter. In Middle Welsh it was written with a tied ligature; this ligature is included in theLatin Extended Additional Unicode block asU+1EFA ỺLATIN CAPITAL LETTER MIDDLE-WELSH LL andU+1EFB ỻLATIN SMALL LETTER MIDDLE-WELSH LL.[3] This ligature is seldom used in Modern Welsh, but equivalent ligatures may be included in modern fonts, for example the three fonts commissioned by theWelsh Government in 2020.[4]
In the standardAsturian orthography published by theAcademy of the Asturian Language in 1981,⟨ll⟩ represents the phoneme/ʎ/ (palatal lateral approximant).[5]
A variation of this digraph,⟨l-l⟩, is used to separate a verb form that ends in -l and theencliticslu,la,lo,los orles. This is pronounced as ageminated⟨l⟩/ll/. For example,val-lo ("it is worth it").[5]
Another variation of this digraph,⟨ḷḷ⟩, is used to represent a set of dialectal phonemes used inWestern Asturian that correspond to/ʎ/ in other dialects:[ɖ] (voiced retroflex plosive),[ɖʐ] (voiced retroflex affricate),[ʈʂ] (voiceless retroflex affricate) or[t͡s] (voiceless alveolar affricate). This may also be written as⟨l.l⟩ in devices that do not support the Unicode charactersU+1E36 ḶLATIN CAPITAL LETTER L WITH DOT BELOW andU+1E37 ḷLATIN SMALL LETTER L WITH DOT BELOW.[5]
InCatalan,⟨ll⟩ represents the phoneme/ʎ/, as inllengua (language, tongue),enllaç (linkage, connection), orcoltell (knife).
In order to not confuse⟨ll⟩/ʎ/ with ageminated⟨l⟩/ll/, Catalan uses a middle dot (interpunct orpunt volat in Catalan) in between⟨ŀl⟩. For exampleexceŀlent ("excellent"). The first character in the digraph,⟨Ŀ⟩ and⟨ŀ⟩, is included in theLatin Extended-A Unicode block at U+013F (uppercase) and U+0140 (lowercase) respectively.
In Catalan typography,⟨ŀl⟩ is intended to fill two spaces, not three,[6] so the interpunct is placed in the narrow space between the two⟨l⟩s:⟨ĿL⟩ and⟨ŀl⟩. However, it is common to write⟨L·L⟩ and⟨l·l⟩, occupying three spaces.⟨L.L⟩ and⟨l.l⟩, although sometimes seen, are incorrect.
In officialGalician spelling the⟨ll⟩ combination stands for the phoneme/ʎ/ (palatal lateral approximant, a palatal counterpart of/l/).
In Spanish,⟨ll⟩ was considered from 1754 to 2010 the fourteenth letter of theSpanish alphabet because of its representation of a palatal lateral articulation consonant phoneme (as defined by theRoyal Academy of the Spanish Language).[7]
WhilePhilippine languages likeTagalog andIlocano write⟨ly⟩ or⟨li⟩ when spelling Spanish loanwords,⟨ll⟩ still survives in proper nouns. However, the pronunciation of⟨ll⟩ is simply[lj] rather than[ʎ]. Hence the surnamesLlamzon,Llamas,Padilla,Bellen,Basallote andVillanueva are respectively pronounced[ljɐmˈzon]/[ljɐmˈson],[ˈljɐmas],[pɐˈdɪːlja],[bɪːlˈjɛːn],[bɐsɐlˈjotɛ] and[ˌbɪːljanuˈwɛːba]/[ˌvɪːljanuˈwɛːva].
Furthermore, in Ilocano⟨ll⟩ represents ageminatealveolar lateral approximant/lː/, like inItalian.
InAlbanian,⟨L⟩ stands for the sound/l/, while⟨Ll⟩ is pronounced as thevelarized sound/ɫ/.
InIcelandic, the⟨ll⟩ can represent[tɬ] (similar to avoiceless alveolar lateral affricate),[9][ɬ] or[l] depending on which letters surround it.[tɬ] appears infullur ("full", masculine),[ɬ] appears infullt ("full", neuter), and[l] appears infulls ("full", neuter genitive). The geographical nameEyjafjallajökull includes the[tɬ] sound twice.
InOld Icelandic, thebroken L ligature appears in some instances, such asvꜹꝇum (field) andoꝇo (all).[10] It takes the form of a lowercase⟨l⟩ with the top half shifted to the left, connected to the lower half with a thin horizontal stroke. This ligature is encoded in theLatin Extended-D Unicode block at U+A746 (uppercase) and U+A747 (lowercase), displaying asꝆ andꝇ respectively.
InCentral Alaskan Yupʼik and theGreenlandic language,⟨ll⟩ stands for/ɬː/.
In theGwoyeu Romatzyh romanization ofMandarin Chinese, final⟨-ll⟩ indicates a falling tone on a syllable ending in/ɻ/, which is otherwise spelled⟨-l⟩.
InHaida (Bringhurst orthography),⟨ll⟩ isglottalized/ˀl/.