Voiced palatal lateral approximant

Consonantal sound represented by ⟨ʎ⟩ in IPA

IPA Number 157

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Entity (decimal) ʎ

Unicode (hex) U+028E

X-SAMPA L

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Voiced alveolo-palatal lateral approximant
l̠ʲ
ʎ̟

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.

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 ⟨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

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.
The 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	llingua	[ˈʎĩŋɡwa̝]
	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
Catalan	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)				A frequent allophone of the sequence /lj/
	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	[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
Portuguese	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	[ˈʎu̞ːbi̞c]^ⓘ	'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]
Xumi	Upper^[6]	[ʎ̟ɛ˦]		'correct, right'	Alveolo-palatal; contrasts with the voiceless /ʎ̥/.^[5]^[6]

Notes

^ Recasens (2013:2), citing Ladefoged (1997:602)
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Recasens et al. (1993), p. 222.
^ Recasens (2013), p. 11.
^ Recasens (2013), pp. 10–13.
^ ^a ^b ^c Chirkova & Chen (2013), pp. 365, 367–368.
^ ^a ^b ^c Chirkova, Chen & Kocjančič Antolík (2013), pp. 382–383.
^ Dedvukaj, Lindon; Ndoci, Rexhina (2023). "Linguistic variation within the Northwestern Gheg Albanian dialect". Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America. 8 (1). Linguistic Society of America: 7. doi:10.3765/plsa.v8i1.5501.
^ ^a ^b Stenson (1991), cited in Hickey (2004:71)
^ ^a ^b Wells (1982), p. 490.
^ ^a ^b ^c Árnason (2011), p. 115.
^ Grevisse & Goosse (2011, §33, b), Fagyal, Kibbee & Jenkins (2006:47)
^ Regueira, Xosé L. (December 1996). "Galician". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 26 (2): 119–122. doi:10.1017/S0025100300006162.
^ Arvaniti (2007), p. 20.
^ Benkő (1972), p. ?.
^ Recasens (2013), p. 10.
^ Ashby (2011:64): "(...) in a large number of Italian accents, there is considerable friction involved in the pronunciation of [ʎ], creating a voiced palatal lateral fricative (for which there is no established IPA symbol)."
^ "Diccionario Shiwilu o Jebero (Pano-Tacanas) | PDF | Lengua española | Vocal". Scribd. Retrieved 2023-10-11.
^ Crosby, Drew; Dalola, Amanda (March 2021). "Phonetic variation in the Korean liquid phoneme". Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America. 6 (1): 706–707, 711. doi:10.3765/plsa.v6i1.5002. Retrieved 5 September 2022.
^ Skjekkeland (1997), pp. 105–107.
^ Teixeira et al. (2012), p. 321.
^ Stein (2011), p. 223.
^ Aragão (2009), p. 168.
^ "Considerações sobre o status das palato-alveolares em português". Archived from the original on 2014-04-07. Retrieved 2014-04-06.
^ Ladefoged (2005), p. 149.
^ Pop (1938), p. 30.
^ Oftedal (1956), p. ?.
^ ^a ^b Jazić (1977:?), cited in Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996:188)
^ [1] Archived 2015-11-20 at the Wayback Machine ALPI
^ Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003), p. 255.
^ Peña Arce, Jaime (2015). "Yeísmo en el español de América. Algunos apuntes sobre su extensión" [Yeísmo in the Spanish spoken in America. Some notes on its extension]. Revista de Filología de la Universidad de la Laguna (in Spanish). 33: 175–199. Retrieved October 5, 2021.

References

Aragão, Maria do Socorro Silva de (2009), Os estudos fonético-fonológicos nos estados da Paraíba e do Ceará [The phonetic-phonological studies in Paraíba and Ceará states] (PDF) (in Portuguese), archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-10-11, retrieved 2017-08-10
Árnason, Kristján (2011), The Phonology of Icelandic and Faroese, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-922931-4
Ashby, Patricia (2011), Understanding Phonetics, Understanding Language series, Routledge, ISBN 978-0-340-92827-1
Arvaniti, Amalia (2007), "Greek Phonetics: The State of the Art" (PDF), Journal of Greek Linguistics, 8: 97–208, CiteSeerX 10.1.1.692.1365, doi:10.1075/jgl.8.08arv, archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-12-11
Benkő, Loránd (1972), "The Hungarian Language", in Imre, Samu (ed.), Janua Linguarum, Series Practica, vol. 134, The Hague: Mouton de Gruyter
Carbonell, Joan F.; Llisterri, Joaquim (1992), "Catalan", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 22 (1–2): 53–56, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004618, S2CID 249411809
Chirkova, Katia; Chen, Yiya (2013), "Xumi, Part 1: Lower Xumi, the Variety of the Lower and Middle Reaches of the Shuiluo River" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 43 (3): 363–379, doi:10.1017/S0025100313000157^{[permanent dead link]}
Chirkova, Katia; Chen, Yiya; Kocjančič Antolík, Tanja (2013), "Xumi, Part 2: Upper Xumi, the Variety of the Upper Reaches of the Shuiluo River" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 43 (3): 381–396, doi:10.1017/S0025100313000169^{[permanent dead link]}
Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995), "European Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 25 (2): 90–94, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005223, S2CID 249414876
Fagyal, Zsuzsanna; Kibbee, Douglas; Jenkins, Fred (2006). French: a linguistic introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511791185. ISBN 978-0521528962.
Grevisse, Maurice; Goosse, André (2011), Le Bon usage (in French), Louvain-la-Neuve: De Boeck Duculot, ISBN 978-2-8011-1642-5
Hickey, Raymon (2004), "Irish English: phonology", in Schneider, Edgar W.; Burridge, Kate; Kortmann, Bernd; Mesthrie, Rajend; Upton, Clive (eds.), A handbook of varieties of English, vol. 1: Phonology, Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 68–97, ISBN 978-3-11-017532-5
Jazić, Đorđe (1977), Osnovi fonetike ruskog jezika: ruski glasovni sistem u poređenju sa srpskohrvatskim, Beograd: Naučna knjiga
Oftedal, M. (1956), The Gaelic of Leurbost, Oslo: Norsk Tidskrift for Sprogvidenskap
Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-19815-6.
Ladefoged, Peter (1997), "Linguistic phonetic descriptions", in Harcastle, William J.; Laver, John (eds.), The handbook of the phonetic sciences, Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 589–618
Ladefoged, Peter (2005), Vowels and Consonants (2nd ed.), Oxford: Blackwell
Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Fernández-Planas, Ana Ma.; Carrera-Sabaté, Josefina (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (2): 255–259, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001373
Pop, Sever (1938), Micul Atlas Linguistic Român, Muzeul Limbii Române Cluj
Recasens, Daniel (2013), "On the articulatory classification of (alveolo)palatal consonants", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 43 (1): 1–22, doi:10.1017/S0025100312000199, S2CID 145463946
Recasens, Daniel; Farnetani, Edda; Fontdevila, Jordi; Pallarès, Maria Dolors (1993), "An electropalatographic study of alveolar and palatal consonants in Catalan and Italian" (PDF), Language and Speech, 36 (2–3): 213–234, doi:10.1177/002383099303600306, PMID 8277809, S2CID 2538069, archived from the original (PDF) on 2022-04-12, retrieved 2013-04-11
Rogers, Derek; d'Arcangeli, Luciana (2004), "Italian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34 (1): 117–121, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001628
Skjekkeland, Martin (1997), Dei norske dialektane: Tradisjonelle særdrag i jamføring med skriftmåla, Høyskoleforlaget (Norwegian Academic Press)
Stein, Cirineu Cecote (2011), O percurso acústico-articulatório da alofonia da consoante lateral palatal [The acoustic-articulatory path of the lateral palatal consonant's allophony] (in Portuguese)
Stenson, Nancy (1991), "Code-switching vs. borrowing in Modern Irish", in Sture Ureland, P.; Broderick, George (eds.), Language Contact in the British Isles. Proceedings of the Eighth International Symposium on Language Contact in Europe, Tübingen: Niemeyer, pp. 559–579, doi:10.1515/9783111678658.559, ISBN 978-3-484-30238-9
Teixeira, António; Martins, Paula; Oliveira, Catarina; Silva, Augusto (2012), "Production and Modeling of the European Portuguese Palatal Lateral", Computational Processing of the Portuguese Language, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 7243, pp. 318–328, doi:10.1007/978-3-642-28885-2_36, ISBN 978-3-642-28884-5
Wells, John C. (1982), Accents of English 3: Beyond The British Isles, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 610–622, ISBN 978-0-521-28541-4

International Phonetic Alphabet (chart)

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IPA	International Phonetic Association History of the alphabet Extensions for disordered speech (extIPA) Voice Quality Symbols (VoQS) Journal of the IPA (JIPA)
Special topics	Cursive forms Case variants Obsolete and nonstandard symbols Naming conventions Sinological extensions World Orthography IPA chart for English dialects
Encodings	ASCII encodings SAMPA X-SAMPA Kirshenbaum TIPA Phonetic symbols in Unicode IPA number IPA Braille

Consonants

Pulmonic consonants

Place →	Labial					Coronal										Dorsal					Laryngeal
Manner ↓	Bilabial		Labiodental		Linguolabial		Dental		Alveolar		Postalveolar		Retroflex		Palatal		Velar		Uvular		Pharyngeal/epiglottal		Glottal
Nasal	m̥	m	ɱ̊	ɱ		n̼			n̥	n			ɳ̊	ɳ	ɲ̊	ɲ	ŋ̊	ŋ	ɴ̥	ɴ
Plosive	p	b	p̪	b̪	t̼	d̼			t	d			ʈ	ɖ	c	ɟ	k	ɡ	q	ɢ	ʡ		ʔ
Sibilant affricate									ts	dz	t̠ʃ	d̠ʒ	tʂ	dʐ	tɕ	dʑ
Non-sibilant affricate	pɸ	bβ	p̪f	b̪v			t̪θ	d̪ð	tɹ̝̊	dɹ̝	t̠ɹ̠̊˔	d̠ɹ̠˔			cç	ɟʝ	kx	ɡɣ	qχ	ɢʁ	ʡʜ	ʡʢ	ʔh
Sibilant fricative									s	z	ʃ	ʒ	ʂ	ʐ	ɕ	ʑ
Non-sibilant fricative	ɸ	β	f	v	θ̼	ð̼	θ	ð	θ̠	ð̠	ɹ̠̊˔	ɹ̠˔	ɻ̊˔	ɻ˔	ç	ʝ	x	ɣ	χ	ʁ	ħ	ʕ	h	ɦ
Approximant				ʋ						ɹ				ɻ		j		ɰ						ʔ̞
Tap/flap		ⱱ̟		ⱱ		ɾ̼			ɾ̥	ɾ			ɽ̊	ɽ						ɢ̆		ʡ̆
Trill	ʙ̥	ʙ							r̥	r			ɽ̊r̥	ɽr					ʀ̥	ʀ	ʜ	ʢ
Lateral affricate									tɬ	dɮ			tꞎ	d𝼅	c𝼆	ɟʎ̝	k𝼄	ɡʟ̝
Lateral fricative									ɬ	ɮ			ꞎ	𝼅	𝼆	ʎ̝	𝼄	ʟ̝
Lateral approximant										l				ɭ		ʎ		ʟ		ʟ̠
Lateral tap/flap									ɺ̥	ɺ			𝼈̥	𝼈		ʎ̆		ʟ̆

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Symbols to the right in a cell are voiced, to the left are voiceless. Shaded areas denote articulations judged impossible.

Non-pulmonic consonants

		BL	LD	D	A	PA	RF	P	V	U	EG
Ejective	Stop	pʼ			tʼ		ʈʼ	cʼ	kʼ	qʼ	ʡʼ
	Affricate		p̪fʼ	t̪θʼ	tsʼ	t̠ʃʼ	tʂʼ	tɕʼ	kxʼ	qχʼ
	Fricative	ɸʼ	fʼ	θʼ	sʼ	ʃʼ	ʂʼ	ɕʼ	xʼ	χʼ
	Lateral affricate				tɬʼ			c𝼆ʼ	k𝼄ʼ	q𝼄ʼ
	Lateral fricative				ɬʼ
Click (top: velar; bottom: uvular)	Tenuis	kʘ qʘ		kǀ qǀ	kǃ qǃ		k𝼊 q𝼊	kǂ qǂ
	Voiced	ɡʘ ɢʘ		ɡǀ ɢǀ	ɡǃ ɢǃ		ɡ𝼊 ɢ𝼊	ɡǂ ɢǂ
	Nasal	ŋʘ ɴʘ		ŋǀ ɴǀ	ŋǃ ɴǃ		ŋ𝼊 ɴ𝼊	ŋǂ ɴǂ	ʞ
	Tenuis lateral				kǁ qǁ
	Voiced lateral				ɡǁ ɢǁ
	Nasal lateral				ŋǁ ɴǁ
Implosive	Voiced	ɓ			ɗ		ᶑ	ʄ	ɠ	ʛ
Implosive	Voiceless	ɓ̥			ɗ̥		ᶑ̊	ʄ̊	ɠ̊	ʛ̥

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Co-articulated consonants

Labial–alveolar

Labial–velar

Fricative/approximant

ɥ̊

Labial–palatal

Labial–velar

Sj-sound (variable)

Lateral approximant

Velarized alveolar

Labial–velar

Labial–alveolar

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Other	Nasal labial–velar approximant [w̃] Nasal palatal approximant [j̃] Voiceless bidental fricative [h̪͆] Voiceless bilabially post-trilled dental stop [t̪ʙ̥] Voiceless nasal glottal approximant [h̃]