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 | |||
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ʎ | |||
IPA number | 157 | ||
Audio sample | |||
source · help | |||
Encoding | |||
Entity (decimal) | ʎ | ||
Unicode (hex) | U+028E | ||
X-SAMPA | L | ||
Braille | |||
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Voiced alveolo-palatal lateral approximant | |
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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⟩) is 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 of the 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 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 | [ˈʎ̟a̠k] | 'lake' | Alveolo-palatal.[2] See Catalan phonology |
Eastern Aragon | clau | [ˈkʎ̟a̠ʊ̯] | 'key' | Allophone of /l/ in consonant clusters. | |
Chipaya | lloqa | [ʎoqa] | 'bank' | See Chipaya languages | |
English | Australian | million | [ˈmɪʎən] | 'million' | A frequent allophone of the sequence /lj/ |
Canadian (Atlantic and Newfoundland) | |||||
County Donegal[8] | Allophone of the sequence /lj/.[8] | ||||
General American[9] | A frequent allophone of the sequence /lj/; sometimes realized as [jj].[9] See English phonology | ||||
Hiberno-English | A frequent allophone 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 | '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 | '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' | Alveolo-palatal.[citation needed] See Scottish Gaelic phonology | |
Serbo-Croatian[27] | љуљaшка / ljuljaška | [ʎ̟ǔʎ̟äːʂkä] | 'swing (seat)' | Palato-alveolar.[27] See Serbo-Croatian phonology | |
Sissano | piyl | [piʎ] | 'fish' | ||
Slovak | ľúbiť | 'to love' | Merges with /l/ in western dialects. See Slovak phonology | ||
Spanish[28] | 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[29] | |||||
Central areas in Extremadura | |||||
Eastern and southwestern Manchego[citation needed] | |||||
Murcian | |||||
Paraguayan[30] | |||||
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' |