Palatal lateral approximant

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IPA – number	157
IPA – text	ʎ
IPA – image
Entity	ʎ
X-SAMPA	L
Kirshenbaum	l^
Sound sample (help·info)

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, which is a turned letter "y" (and not to be confused with lowercase lambda, λ), and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is L.

Contents 1 Features 2 In English 3 In other languages 4 See also

[edit] Features

Features of the palatal lateral approximant:

• Its manner of articulation is approximant, which means it is produced by bringing one articulator close to another but without the vocal tract being narrowed to such an extent that a turbulent airstream is produced.
• Its place of articulation is palatal which means it is articulated with the middle or back part of the tongue raised against the hard palate.
• Its phonation type is voiced, which means the vocal cords are vibrating during the articulation.
• It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth.
• It is a lateral consonant, which means it is produced by allowing the airstream to flow over the sides of the tongue, rather than the middle of the tongue.
• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic egressive, which means it is articulated by pushing air out of the lungs and through the vocal tract, rather than from the glottis or the mouth.

[edit] In English

In some dialects of English, the sequence /lj/ is sometimes realized as the palatal lateral approximant, via coalescence, a type of assimilation. For example, million (/ˈmɪljən/ might be realized as [ˈmɪʎən]). However, there are no minimal pairs for /lj/ and /ʎ/, so the palatal lateral approximant is not a separate phoneme in English.

[edit] In other languages

• Aymara: llaki [ʎaki], "sad"
• Catalan: lluna [ˈʎunǝ], "moon"
• Croatian: odijeljen [ˈodijeːʎen], "separated"
• Faroese: fylgja [fɪʎʤa] / [fɪʎɟa], "to follow"
• Galician: ollo [ˈoʎo], "eye"
• Gascon: hilh [hiʎ], "son"
• Greek: γυαλιά [ʝaˈʎa], "glasses"
• Hungarian (dialectal): király ['kiraːʎ], "king"
• Italian: figlio [ˈfiʎːo], "son"
• Macedonian: љубов [ʎubov], "love"
• Portuguese: olho [ˈoʎu], "eye"
• Occitan: miralhar [mira'ʎa], "to reflect"
• Quechua: allin [ˈaʎin], "good"
• Scottish Gaelic: till [tʃʰiːʎ], "return"
• Sissano: piyl [piʎ], "fish"
• Slovak: roľa [ˈrɔʎa], "field"
• Spanish: millón [miˈʎon] "million"

[edit] See also

• List of phonetics topics
• yeismo

Consonants (List, table)	See also: IPA, Vowels
Pulmonics Bilabial Lab'den. Dental Alveolar Postalv. Retroflex Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyn. Epiglottal Glottal Non-pulmonics and other symbols Nasals m ɱ n̪ n ɳ ɲ ŋ ɴ Clicks  ʘ ǀ ǃ ǂ ǁ Plosives p b p̪ b̪ t̪ d̪ t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ ʡ ʔ Implo­­sives  ɓ ɗ ʄ ɠ ʛ Fricatives  ɸ β f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ ç ʝ x ɣ χ ʁ ħ ʕ ʜ ʢ h ɦ Ejec­­tives  pʼ tʼ kʼ qʼ sʼ Approximants  β̞ ʋ ð̞ ɹ ɻ j ɰ Other laterals  ɺ ɫ Trills ʙ r • ʀ • Co-articulated approximants ʍ w ɥ Flaps & Taps ѵ̟ ѵ ɾ ɽ • Co-articulated fricatives ɕ ʑ ɧ Lat. Fricatives ɬ ɮ • • • Affricates  ʦ ʣ ʧ ʤ Lat. Appr'mants l ɭ ʎ ʟ Co-articulated stops  k͡p ɡ͡b ŋ͡m
This page contains phonetic information in IPA, which may not display correctly in some browsers. [Help] Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a voiced consonant. Shaded areas denote pulmonic articulations judged impossible.