| Voiced palatal lateral approximant | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ʎ | |||
| IPA number | 157 | ||
| Audio sample | |||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity(decimal) | ʎ | ||
| Unicode(hex) | U+028E | ||
| X-SAMPA | L | ||
| Braille | |||
| |||
| Voiced alveolo-palatal lateral approximant | |
|---|---|
| l̠ʲ |
Avoiced palatal lateral approximant is a type ofconsonantal sound used in somespokenlanguages. The symbol in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ʎ⟩, a rotated lowercase letter⟨y⟩, not to be confused with the Greek lowercase letterlambda⟨λ⟩.
Many languages that were previously thought to have a palatallateral approximant actually have a lateral approximant that is, broadly,alveolo-palatal: the sound is articulated at a place in-between thealveolar ridge and thehard palate (excluded), and it may be variously described as alveolo-palatal, lamino-postalveolar,[1] or postalveolo-prepalatal.[2] None of the 13 languages investigated byRecasens (2013), many of themRomance, has a 'true' palatal.[3] That is likely the case for several other languages listed here. Some languages, like Portuguese and Catalan, have a lateral approximant that varies between alveolar and alveolo-palatal.[4]
What is transcribed ⟨ʎ⟩ is often actually avoiced alveolo-palatal lateral approximant. There is no dedicated symbol in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound, which is one reason that ⟨ʎ⟩ is used. If more precision is desired, it may be transcribed ⟨l̠ʲ⟩. There is a non-IPA letter,U+0234 ȴLATIN SMALL LETTER L WITH CURL;⟨ȴ⟩ (⟨l⟩, plus the curl found in the symbols for alveolo-palatal sibilant fricatives⟨ɕ,ʑ⟩), which is used especially in Sinological circles.
A voiced palatal lateral approximant contrasts phonemically with itsvoiceless counterpart/ʎ̥/ in theXumi language spoken in China.[5][6]
Features of a voiced palatal lateral approximant:
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Albanian[7] | Malsia e Madhe | lule | [ˈʎuʎɛ] | 'flower' | |
| Arbëresh | |||||
| Arvanitika | |||||
| Aragonese | agulla | [a̠ˈɣuʎa̠] | 'needle' | ||
| Aromanian | ljepuri | [ˈʎe̞puri] | 'rabbit' | ||
| Astur-Leonese | Asturian | llingua | [ˈʎĩŋɡwa̝] | 'language' | Where/ʎ/ is absent and replaced by different sounds (depending on dialect), a phenomenon known asche vaqueira, its corresponding sounds are spelled⟨ḷḷ⟩. |
| Leonese | |||||
| Mirandese | lhéngua | [ˈʎɛ̃ɡwɐ] | |||
| Aymara | llaki | [ʎaki] | 'sad' | ||
| Basque | bonbilla | [bo̞mbiʎa̠] | 'bulb' | ||
| Breton | familh | [fa̠miʎ] | 'family' | ||
| Bulgarian | любов | [ʎuˈbof] | 'love' | Alveolo-palatal. SeeBulgarian phonology | |
| Catalan | Standard | llac | [ˈʎäk] | 'lake' | Alveolo-palatal.[2] SeeCatalan phonology |
| Eastern Aragon | clau | [ˈkʎäw] | 'key' | Allophone of/l/ inconsonant clusters. | |
| Chipaya | lloqa | [ʎoqa] | 'bank' | SeeChipaya languages | |
| English | Australian | million | [ˈmɪʎən] | 'million' | Frequent realization of the sequence/lj/ |
| Canadian (Atlantic andNewfoundland) | |||||
| County Donegal[8] | Realization of the sequence/lj/.[8] | ||||
| General American[9] | Common realization of the sequence/lj/; sometimes realized as[jj].[9] SeeEnglish phonology | ||||
| Hiberno-English | Common realization of the sequence/lj/ | ||||
| New England | |||||
| New York City | |||||
| New Zealand | |||||
| Received Pronunciation | |||||
| South African | |||||
| Southern American | |||||
| Philippine | gorilla | [goˈɾɪʎɐ] | 'gorilla' | Common realization of⟨ll⟩ between vowels due to Spanish influence.[citation needed] | |
| Enindhilyagwa | angalya | [aŋal̠ʲa] | 'place' | Laminal post-alveolar | |
| Faroese[10] | telgja | [ˈtʰɛʎt͡ʃa] | 'to carve' | Allophone of/l/ before palatal consonants.[10] Sometimes voiceless[ʎ̥].[10] SeeFaroese phonology | |
| Franco-Provençal | balyi | [baʎi] | 'give' | ||
| French | Some dialects[11] | papillon | [papiʎɒ̃] | 'butterfly' | Corresponds to/j/ in modern standard French. SeeFrench phonology |
| Galician | Standard | illado | [iˈʎa̠ðo̝] | 'insulated' | Most Galician speakers, especially the urban and younger populations, are nowadaysyeístas[12] because of influence from Spanish |
| Greek | ήλιος | [ˈiʎos]ⓘ | 'sun' | Postalveolar.[13] SeeModern Greek phonology | |
| Hungarian | Northern dialects[14] | lyuk | [ʎuk]ⓘ | 'hole' | Alveolo-palatal.[15] Modern Standard Hungarian has undergone a phenomenon akin to Spanishyeísmo, merging/ʎ/ into/j/. SeeHungarian ly andHungarian phonology |
| Irish | duille | [ˈd̪ˠɪl̠ʲə] | 'leaf' | Alveolo-palatal. Some dialects contrast it with palatalized alveolar/lʲ/. SeeIrish phonology | |
| Italian[2] | figlio | [ˈfiʎːo]ⓘ | 'son' | Alveolo-palatal.[2] Realized as fricative[ʎ̝] in a large number of accents.[16] SeeItalian phonology | |
| Ivilyuat | Ivil̃uɂat | [ʔivɪʎʊʔat] | 'the speaking [Ivilyuat]' ('Ivilyuat language') | ||
| Jaqaru | allaka | [a'ʎaka] | 'pumpkin' | SeeJaqaru Language | |
| Jebero | llinllin[17] | [ʎinʎin] | 'name' | SeeJebero Language | |
| Korean | Seoul dialect | 천리마 / cheollima | [t͡ɕʰʌ̹ʎʎima̠] | 'qianlima' | /l/ is palatalized to[ʎ] before/i,j/ and before palatal consonant allophones[18] |
| Latvian | ļaudis | [ʎàwdis] | 'people' | SeeLatvian phonology | |
| Mapudungun | aylla | [ˈɐjʎɜ] | 'nine' | SeeMapuche language | |
| Norwegian | Northern and centraldialects[19] | alle | [ɑʎːe] | 'all' | SeeNorwegian phonology |
| Occitan | Standard | miralhar | [miɾa̠ˈʎa̠] | 'to reflect' | SeeOccitan phonology |
| Paiwan | Standard | veljevelj | [vəʎəvəʎ] | 'banana' | SeePaiwan language |
| Paez | silli | [siʎi] | 'reed' | SeePaezan languages | |
| Portuguese | Standard | alho | [ˈaʎu] | 'garlic' | Alveolo-palatal inEuropean Portuguese.[20] May instead be[lʲ],[l] (Northeast) or[j] (Caipira), especially before unrounded vowels.[21][22] SeePortuguese phonology |
| Many dialects[23] | sandália | [sɐ̃ˈda̠l̠ʲɐ] | 'sandal' | Possible realization of post-stressed/li/ plus vowel. | |
| Quechua[24] | qallu | [qaʎʊ] | 'tongue' | ||
| Romanian | Transylvanian dialects[25] | lingură | [ˈʎinɡurə] | 'spoon' | Corresponds to[l][in which environments?] in standard Romanian. SeeRomanian phonology |
| Romansh | Sursilvan | fegl | [feʎ] | 'son' | |
| Sutsilvan | |||||
| Surmiran | |||||
| Puter | figl | [fiʎ] | |||
| Vallader | |||||
| Rumantsch Grischun | |||||
| Scottish Gaelic[26] | till | [tʲʰiːʎ] | 'return' | Palatal or palatalised apical dental. Can manifest as[j], or among some younger speakers, as[lj].[27] SeeScottish Gaelic phonology | |
| Serbo-Croatian[28] | љуљaшка /ljuljačka | [ʎ̟ǔʎ̟äːʂkä],[ʎ̟ǔʎ̟äːt͡ʂkä] | 'swing (seat)' | Palato-alveolar.[28] SeeSerbo-Croatian phonology | |
| Sissano | piyl | [piʎ] | 'fish' | ||
| Slovak | ľúbiť | [ˈʎu̞ːbi̞c]ⓘ | 'to love' | Merges with/l/ in western dialects. SeeSlovak phonology | |
| Spanish[29] | Andean (from Argentina to Colombia) | caballo | [ka̠ˈβ̞a̠.ʎo̞] | 'horse' | Found in traditional speakers in Peninsular Spanish. Also found in Andean countries and Paraguay. For most speakers, this sound has merged with/ʝ/, a phenomenon calledyeísmo. SeeSpanish phonology. "Caballo" withyeísmo is pronounced[ka̠ˈβ̞a̠.ʝo̞] |
| Castilian,Aragonese andCatalonian outside of large cities[30] | |||||
| Centralareas in Extremadura | |||||
| Eastern and southwesternManchego[citation needed] | |||||
| Murcian | |||||
| Paraguayan[31] | |||||
| Philippine | |||||
| Very fewareas in Andalusia | |||||
| Xumi | Lower[5] | [ʎ̟o˩˥] | 'musk deer' | Alveolo-palatal; contrasts with the voiceless/ʎ̥/.[5][6] | |
| Upper[6] | [ʎ̟ɛ˦] | 'correct, right' | |||