Mouillé (French for "moistened") is a term describing a palatal or palatalized consonant, particularly l or n.
| l mouillé | n mouillé | |
|---|---|---|
| French | (i)ll | (i)gn |
| Italian | gl | gn |
| Spanish | ll | ñ |
| Portuguese | lh | nh |
L mouillé has a variety of origins in the Romance languages. In this table, letters that represent or used to represent palatal l (/ʎ/) are bolded. In French, /ʎ/ merged with /j/ in pronunciation in the 18th century; in many dialects of Spanish, /ʎ/ has merged or is merging with /ʝ/.
| Latin | meliōrem "better" |
auric(u)la "ear" |
caballum "horse" |
clavem "key" |
lunam "moon" |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Italian | migliore | orecchio | cavallo | chiave | luna |
| French | meilleur | oreille | cheval | clef | lune |
| Portuguese | melhor | orelha | cavalo | chave | lua |
| Catalan | millor | orella | cavall | clau | lluna |
| Spanish | mejor | oreja | caballo | llave | luna |