Back Palataler lateraler Approximant ALS Звучна небна странична приблизителна съгласна Bulgarian ঘোষ তালব্য পার্শ্বিক নৈকট্যধ্বনি Bengali/Bangla Kensonenn staon a-gostez dre dostaat Breton Aproximant lateral palatal sonora Catalan Palatální laterální aproximanta Czech Palatal lateral approksimant Danish Stimmhafter lateraler palataler Approximant German Aproximante lateral palatal sonora Spanish Consonne spirante latérale palatale voisée French
| Voiced palatal lateral approximant | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ʎ | |||
| IPA Number | 157 | ||
| Audio sample | |||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity (decimal) | ʎ | ||
| Unicode (hex) | U+028E | ||
| X-SAMPA | L | ||
| Braille |   | ||
| |||
| 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 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]
- ^ Recasens (2013:2), citing Ladefoged (1997:602)
- ^ Recasens et al. (1993), p. 222.
- ^ Recasens (2013), p. 11.
- ^ Recasens (2013), pp. 10–13.
- ^ Chirkova & Chen (2013), pp. 365, 367–368.
- ^ Chirkova, Chen & Kocjančič Antolík (2013), pp. 382–383.