Voiced palatal lateral approximant

The voiced palatal lateral approximant is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ʎ⟩, a rotated lowercase letter ⟨y⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is L.

Voiced palatal lateral approximant
ʎ
IPA number	157
Audio sample
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Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ʎ
Unicode (hex)	U+028E
X-SAMPA	L
Braille
Image

Voiced alveolo-palatal lateral approximant
l̠ʲ
ʎ̟

Many languages that were previously thought to have a palatal lateral approximant actually have a lateral approximant that is, broadly, alveolo-palatal; that is to say, it is articulated at a place in-between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate (excluded), and it may be variously described as alveolo-palatal, lamino-postalveolar,^[1] or postalveolo-prepalatal.^[2] None of the 13 languages investigated by Recasens (2013), many of them Romance, 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]

There is no dedicated symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents the alveolo-palatal lateral approximant. If precision is desired, it may be transcribed ⟨l̠ʲ⟩ or ⟨ʎ̟⟩; they are essentially equivalent because the contact includes both the blade and body (but not the tip) of the tongue. There is also a non-IPA letter U+0234 ȴ LATIN SMALL LETTER L WITH CURL; ⟨ȴ⟩ ("l", plus the curl found in the symbols for alveolo-palatal sibilant fricatives ⟨ɕ, ʑ⟩) used especially in Sinological circles.

The voiced palatal lateral approximant contrasts phonemically with its voiceless counterpart /ʎ̥/ in the Xumi language spoken in China.^[5][6]

Features

Cased forms of the IPA letter in the Pilagá alphabet. The capital is not supported by Unicode.

Features of the voiced palatal lateral approximant:

• Its manner of articulation is approximant, which means it is produced by narrowing the vocal tract at the place of articulation, but not enough to produce a turbulent airstream.
• Its place of articulation is palatal, which means it is articulated with the middle or back part of the tongue raised to the hard palate.
• Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
• It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
• It is a lateral consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream over the sides of the tongue, rather than down the middle.
• Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

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 as che 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. See Bulgarian phonology
Catalan	Standard	llac	[ˈʎäk]	'lake'	Alveolo-palatal.[2] See Catalan phonology
	Eastern Aragon	clau	[ˈkʎäw]	'key'	Allophone of /l/ in consonant clusters.
Chipaya		lloqa	[ʎoqa]	'bank'	See Chipaya languages
English	Australian	million	[ˈmɪʎən]	'million'	Frequent realization of the sequence /lj/
	Canadian (Atlantic and Newfoundland)
	County Donegal[8]				Realization of the sequence /lj/.[8]
	General American[9]				Common realization of the sequence /lj/; sometimes realized as [jj].[9] See English 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] See Faroese phonology
Franco-Provençal		balyi	[baʎi]	'give'
French	Some dialects[11]	papillon	[papiʎɒ̃]	'butterfly'	Corresponds to /j/ in modern standard French. See French phonology
Galician	Standard	illado	[iˈʎa̠ðo̝]	'insulated'	Most Galician speakers, especially the urban and younger populations, are nowadays yeístas[12] because of influence from Spanish
Greek		ήλιος	[ˈiʎos]ⓘ	'sun'	Postalveolar.[13] See Modern Greek phonology
Hungarian	Northern dialects[14]	lyuk	[ʎuk]	'hole'	Alveolo-palatal.[15] Modern Standard Hungarian has undergone a phenomenon akin to Spanish yeísmo, merging /ʎ/ into /j/. See Hungarian ly and Hungarian phonology
Irish		duille	[ˈd̪ˠɪl̠ʲə]	'leaf'	Alveolo-palatal. Some dialects contrast it with palatalized alveolar /lʲ/. See Irish phonology
Italian[2]		figlio	[ˈfiʎːo]ⓘ	'son'	Alveolo-palatal.[2] Realized as fricative [ʎ̝] in a large number of accents.[16] See Italian phonology
Ivilyuat		Ivil̃uɂat	[ʔivɪʎʊʔat]	'the speaking [Ivilyuat]' ('Ivilyuat language')
Jaqaru		allaka	[a'ʎaka]	'pumpkin'	See Jaqaru Language
Jebero		llinllin[17]	[ʎinʎin]	'name'	See Jebero 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'	See Latvian phonology
Mapudungun		aylla	[ˈɐjʎɜ]	'nine'	See Mapuche language
Norwegian	Northern and central dialects[19]	alle	[ɑʎːe]	'all'	See Norwegian phonology
Occitan	Standard	miralhar	[miɾa̠ˈʎa̠]	'to reflect'	See Occitan phonology
Paiwan	Standard	veljevelj	[vəʎəvəʎ]	'banana'	See Paiwan language
Paez		silli	[siʎi]	'reed'	See Paezan languages
Portuguese	Standard	alho	[ˈaʎu]	'garlic'	Alveolo-palatal in European Portuguese.[20] May instead be [lʲ], [l] (Northeast) or [j] (Caipira), especially before unrounded vowels.[21][22] See Portuguese 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. See Romanian phonology
Scottish Gaelic[26]		till	[tʲʰiːʎ]	'return'	Palatal or palatalised apical dental. Can manifest as [j], or among some younger speakers, as [lj].[27] See Scottish Gaelic phonology
Serbo-Croatian[28]		љуљaшка / ljuljačka	[ʎ̟ǔʎ̟äːʂkä], [ʎ̟ǔʎ̟äːt͡ʂkä]	'swing (seat)'	Palato-alveolar.[28] See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Sissano		piyl	[piʎ]	'fish'
Slovak		ľúbiť	[ˈʎu̞ːbi̞c]ⓘ	'to love'	Merges with /l/ in western dialects. See Slovak 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 called yeísmo. See Spanish phonology. "Caballo" with yeísmo is pronounced [ka̠ˈβ̞a̠.ʝo̞]
	Castilian, Aragonese and Catalonian outside of large cities[30]
	Central areas in Extremadura
	Eastern and southwestern Manchego[citation needed]
	Murcian
	Paraguayan[31]
	Philippine
	Very few areas in Andalusia
Xumi	Lower[5]	[ʎ̟o˩˥]		'musk deer'	Alveolo-palatal; contrasts with the voiceless /ʎ̥/.[5][6]
	Upper[6]	[ʎ̟ɛ˦]		'correct, right'

See also

• Yeísmo, a feature of Spanish dialects that have merged this sound with [ʝ]
• Index of phonetics articles