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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
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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, or postalveolo-prepalatal. None of the 13 languages investigated by Recasens (2013), many of them Romance, has a 'true' palatal. 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.

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.

Features

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

See also

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

Notes

1. Recasens (2013:2), citing Ladefoged (1997:602)
2. ^ Recasens et al. (1993), p. 222.
3. Recasens (2013), p. 11.
4. Recasens (2013), pp. 10–13.
5. ^ Chirkova & Chen (2013), pp. 365, 367–368.
6. ^ Chirkova, Chen & Kocjančič Antolík (2013), pp. 382–383.
7. 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.
8. ^ Stenson (1991), cited in Hickey (2004:71)
9. ^ Wells (1982), p. 490.
10. ^ Árnason (2011), p. 115.
11. Grevisse & Goosse (2011, §33, b), Fagyal, Kibbee & Jenkins (2006:47)
12. Regueira, Xosé L. (December 1996). "Galician". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 26 (2): 119–122. doi:10.1017/S0025100300006162.
13. Arvaniti (2007), p. 20.
14. Benkő (1972), p. ?.
15. Recasens (2013), p. 10.
16. Ashby (2011:64): "(...) in a large number of Italian accents, there is considerable friction involved in the pronunciation of , creating a voiced palatal lateral fricative (for which there is no established IPA symbol)."
17. "Diccionario Shiwilu o Jebero (Pano-Tacanas) | PDF | Lengua española | Vocal". Scribd. Retrieved 2023-10-11.
18. 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.
19. Skjekkeland (1997), pp. 105–107.
20. Teixeira et al. (2012), p. 321.
21. Stein (2011), p. 223.
22. Aragão (2009), p. 168.
23. "Considerações sobre o status das palato-alveolares em português". Archived from the original on 2014-04-07. Retrieved 2014-04-06.
24. Ladefoged (2005), p. 149.
25. Pop (1938), p. 30.
26. Oftedal (1956), p. ?.
27. Nance (2013), p. 129.
28. ^ Jazić (1977:?), cited in Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996:188)
29. Archived 2015-11-20 at the Wayback Machine ALPI
30. Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003), p. 255.
31. 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
• 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
• 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
• Nance, Claire (2013), Phonetic variation, sound change, and identity in Scottish Gaelic (PhD thesis), University of Glasgow
• 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

v t e International Phonetic Alphabet (chart)
IPA topics 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 IPA help  audio full chart template 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 Voiceless ɓ̥ ɗ̥ ᶑ̊ ʄ̊ ɠ̊ ʛ̥ IPA help  audio full chart template Co-articulated consonants Nasal n͡m Labial–alveolar ɳ͡m Labial–retroflex ŋ͡m Labial–velar Plosive t͡pd͡b Labial–alveolar ʈ͡pɖ͡b Labial–retroflex k͡pɡ͡b Labial–velar q͡ʡ Uvular–epiglottal q͡p Labial–uvular Fricative/approximant ɥ̊ɥ Labial–palatal ʍw Labial–velar ɧ Sj-sound (variable) Lateral approximant ɫ Velarized alveolar Implosive ɠ̊͜ɓ̥ ɠ͡ɓ Labial–velar Ejective t͡pʼ Labial–alveolar IPA help full chart template Other Nasal labial–velar approximant Nasal palatal approximant Voiceless bidental fricative Voiceless bilabially post-trilled dental stop Voiceless nasal glottal approximant
Vowels Front Central Back Close i y ɨ ʉ ɯ u Near-close ɪ ʏ ʊ Close-mid e ø ɘ ɵ ɤ o Mid e̞ ø̞ ə ɤ̞ o̞ Open-mid ɛ œ ɜ ɞ ʌ ɔ Near-open æ ɐ Open a ɶ ä ɑ ɒ IPA help  audio full chart template Legend: unrounded • rounded

• Approximant consonants
• Lateral consonants
• Palatal consonants
• Alveolo-palatal consonants
• Pulmonic consonants
• Oral consonants