Palatal lateral approximant

Palatal lateral approximant
ʎ
IPA Number	157
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ʎ
Unicode (hex)	U+028E
X-SAMPA	L
Braille
Image

Voiced alveolo-palatal lateral approximant
l̠ʲ
ʎ̟
ȴ

The 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⟩ (not to be confused with lowercase lambda, ⟨λ⟩), 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, or postalveolo-prepalatal. Of 13 languages investigated by Recasens (2013), many of them Romance, none have a 'true' palatal. This 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.

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⟩; these 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⟩, used especially in Sinological circles.

The palatal lateral approximant contrasts phonemically with its voiceless counterpart /ʎ̥/ in the Xumi language spoken in China.

Features

Features of the 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 lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Aragonese		agulla	[a̠ˈɣuʎa̠]	'needle'
Astur-Leonese	Asturian	llingua	[ˈʎĩŋgwa̝]	'language'	Where /ʎ/ is absent due to a yeísmo-like merger, it is replaced by different sounds (depending on dialect) and spelled ⟨ḷḷ⟩. Yeísmo is prevalent in Extremaduran language (spoken in northwestern Extremadura) and west central Asturian.
	Leonese
	Mirandese	lhéngua	[ˈʎɛ̃gwɐ]
Aymara		llaki	[ʎaki]	'sad'
Basque		bonbilla	[bo̞mbiʎa̠]	'bulb'
Breton		familh	[fa̠miʎ]	'family'
Bulgarian		любов	[l̠ʲubof]	'love'	Alveolo-palatal.
Catalan	Standard	ull	[ˈul̠ʲ]	'eye'	Alveolo-palatal. See Catalan phonology
	Eastern Aragon	clau	[ˈkl̠ʲa̠w]	'key'	Allophone of /l/ in consonant clusters
English	County Donegal	million	[ˈmɪʎən]	'million'	Allophone of the sequence /lj/.
	General American				A frequent allophone of the sequence /lj/; sometimes realized as [jj]. See English phonology
Enindhilyagwa		angalya	[aŋal̠ʲa]	'place'	Laminal post-alveolar
Faroese		telgja	[ˈtʰɛʎt͡ʃa]	'to carve'	Allophone of /l/ before palatal consonants. Sometimes voiceless [ʎ̥]. See Faroese phonology
Franco-Provençal		balyi	[baʎi]	'give'
French	Some dialects	papillon	[papiʎɒ̃]	'butterfly'	Corresponds to /j/ in modern standard French. See French phonology
Galician	Standard	illado	[iˈʎa̠ðo̝]	'insulated'	Many Galician speakers are nowadays yeístas because of influence from Spanish
Greek		ήλιος	<phonos file="Ell-Hlios.ogg">[ˈiʎos]</phonos>	'sun'	Postalveolar. See Modern Greek phonology
Hungarian	Northern dialects	lyuk	[ʎuk]	'hole'	Alveolo-palatal. Modern standard Hungarian has undergone a phenomenon akin to Spanish yeísmo, merging /ʎ/ into /j/. See Hungarian ly and Hungarian phonology
Italian		figlio	[ˈfiʎːo]	'son'	Alveolo-palatal. Realized as fricative [ʎ̝] in a large number of accents. See Italian phonology
Korean		실례/sillye	[ɕil̠ʲl̠ʲe]	'discourtesy'	Alveolo-palatal. See Korean phonology
Norwegian	Northern and central dialects	alle	[ɑʎːe]	'all'	See Norwegian phonology
Occitan	Standard	miralhar	[miɾa̠ˈʎa̠]	'to reflect'	See Occitan phonology
Portuguese	Standard	ralho	[ˈʁaʎu]	'I scold'	Alveolo-palatal in European Portuguese. May instead be [lʲ], [l] (Northeast) or [j] (Caipira), especially before unrounded vowels. See Portuguese phonology
	Many dialects	sandália	[sɐ̃ˈda̠l̠ʲɐ]	'sandal'	Possible realization of post-stressed /li/ plus vowel.
Quechua		qallu	[qaʎʊ]	'tongue'
Romanian	Transylvanian dialects	lingură	[ʎungurə]	'spoon'	Corresponds to [l] in standard Romanian. See Romanian phonology
Scottish Gaelic		till	[tʲʰiːʎ]	'return'	Alveolo-palatal. See Scottish Gaelic phonology
Serbo-Croatian		љуљaшка / ljuljaška	[ʎ̟ǔʎ̟a̠ːʃka̠]	'swing (seat)'	Palato-alveolar. See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Sissano		piyl	[piʎ]	'fish'
Slovak		ľúbiť		'to love'	Merges with /l/ in southern dialects. See Slovak phonology
Spanish	Andean	caballo	[ka̠ˈβa̠ʎö]	'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
	Castilian
	Central areas in Extremadura
	Eastern and southwestern Manchego
	Murcian
	Paraguayan
	Very few areas in Andalusia
Xumi	Lower	[Rʎ̟o]		'musk deer'	Alveolo-palatal; contrasts with the voiceless /ʎ̥/.
	Upper	[Hʎ̟ɛ]		'correct, right'

See also

• Yeísmo
• Index of phonetics articles