Hungarian ly

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Ly is a digraph of the Latin alphabet, used in Hungarian.

Hungarian language
Alphabet, including ő ű and cs dz dzs gy ly ny sz ty zs
Phonetics and phonology
Vowel harmony
Grammar    Noun phrases    Verbs
T-V distinction
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Hungarian name
Language history    Sound correspondences
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Hungarian pronunciation of English • Old Hungarian script • English words from Hungarian
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Contents 1 Usage 2 History 3 Examples 4 See also 5 References

[edit] Usage

Ly is the twentieth letter of the Hungarian alphabet. Its Hungarian name is ellipszilon /ɛlːipsilon/ or elly /ɛjː/ (sometimes spelled ejj). Nowadays it represents the same phoneme /j/ (palatal approximant) as the Hungarian letter j, but historically it represented the different phoneme /ʎ/ (palatal lateral approximant).

It is only used this way in Hungarian. In Hungarian, even if two characters are put together to make a different sound, they are considered one letter, and even acronyms keep the letter intact.

[edit] History

Originally the digraph letter ly was used to represent the palatal lateral /ʎ/, just like the digraph letter ny was used to represent the palatal nasal /ɲ/. However, in the eastern dialects, as well as in the standard dialect, the phoneme /ʎ/ lost its lateral feature and merged with /j/ (this process is akin to Spanish yeísmo); this way, the Hungarian letter ly came to be pronounced the same as the Hungarian letter j. In the western dialects, /ʎ/ lost its palatal feature and merged with /l/ (alveolar lateral approximant). In the northern dialects, the phoneme /ʎ/ was preserved. ^[1]

[edit] Examples

These examples are Hungarian words that use the letter ly, with the English translation following.

• furulya = recorder
• amelyet = which (accusative)
• helyi = local
• golyó = ball
• lyuk = hole
• kehely=goblet
• folyó=river

[edit] See also

• Hungarian alphabet

[edit] References

v • d • e Latin alphabet
Digraphs	Aa aa Ae ae Ai ai Au au Aw aw Ay ay Bh bh Ch ch Ck ck Cö cö Cs cs Cu cu Cz cz Dd dd Dh dh Dj dj Dx dx Dz dz Dž dž Dź dź Dż dż Ea ea Ee ee Ei ei Eu eu Ew ew Ey ey Ff ff Fh fh Gb gb Gh gh Għ għ Gi gi Gj gj Gn gn Gy gy Hs hs Hu hu Ie ie IJ ij Jö jö Kh kh Kp kp Ku ku Lh lh Lj lj Ll ll Ly ly Mb mb Mh mh Mp mp Nd nd Ng ng Nh nh Nj nj Nk nk Ns ns Nt nt Ny ny Nz nz Oa oa Oe oe Oi oi Oo oo Ou ou Ow ow Oy oy Ph ph Qu qu Rd rd Rh rh Rl rl Rn rn Rr rr Rt rt Rz rz Sh sh Sv sv Sy sy Sz sz Th th Tj tj Tr tr Ts ts Tx tx Ty ty Tz tz Ue ue Ui ui Vh vh Wh wh Xh xh Xö xö Yh yh Yk yk Zh zh Zs zs Zv zv
Trigraphs	C'h c'h Dzs dzs Eau eau Ngb ngb Ngh ngh Ngk ngk Nkp nkp Nth nth Nyk nyk Rnd rnd Sch sch
Tetragraphs	Eeuw eeuw Ieuw ieuw Ough ough