Hungarian ly

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

Hungarian language
Closeup of a Hungarian keyboard
Alphabet
  • ly
  • ny
  • sz
  • ty
  • zs
Grammar
  • T-V distinction
History
Other features
  • Vowel harmony
Hungarian and English
  • Hungarian pronunciation of English

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 used this way only 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.

The combination lj (considered two separate letters, L and J) is also common in Hungarian, and is in fact pronounced /ʎ/ by many speakers. However, even this is sometimes subject to the same reduction to /j/ that ly has been, mainly if it is at the end of a word.

History

Originally the digraph letter ly was used to represent the palatal lateral /ʎ/, just like the digraph letter ny is still 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/ has been preserved.[1]

The digraph ly was also used for the sound /ʎ/ in Croatian alphabet, before Gaj's Latin Alphabet was introduced.[2]

Examples

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

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

See also

References

  1. ↑ BENKŐ Loránd; IMRE Samu (ed.): The Hungarian Language. Janua Linguarum, Series Practica, No. 134. The Hague: Mouton de Gruyter (1972).
  2. ↑ Alphabeti Serborum
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