Palatal lateral approximant

Palatal lateral approximant
ʎ
IPA number 157
Encoding
Entity (decimal) ʎ
Unicode (hex) U+028E
X-SAMPA L
Kirshenbaum l^
Braille ⠦ (braille pattern dots-236)⠽ (braille pattern dots-13456)
Sound
source · help
Alveolo-palatal lateral approximant
l̠ʲ
ʎ̟
ȴ

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, a rotated lowercase letter y (not to be confused with lowercase lambda, λ), 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] Of 13 languages investigated by Recasens (2013), many of them Romance, none have a 'true' palatal.[3] This 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; these 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 ȴ, used especially in Sinological circles.

According to some scholars,[5][6] the palatal lateral approximant contrasts phonemically with its voiceless counterpart /ʎ̥/ in some subdialects of Trøndersk, which is a dialect of Norwegian.[7]

Features

Features of the palatal lateral approximant:

Occurrence

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Aragonese agulla [aˈɣuʎa] 'needle'
Asturian Northern dialects llana [ˈʎãna] 'wool' Where /ʎ/ is absent due to a yeísmo-like merger, it is replaced by different sounds (depending on dialect) and spelled ḷḷ
Aymara llaki [ʎaki] 'sad'
Basque bonbilla [bo̞mbiʎa] 'bulb'
Breton familh [famiʎ] 'family'
Bulgarian любов [l̠ʲubof] 'love' Alveolo-palatal.
Catalan ull [ˈul̠ʲ] 'eye' Alveolo-palatal.[2] See Catalan phonology
English General American[8] million [ˈmɪʎən] 'million' Frequent allophone of /lj/,[8] sometimes realized as [jj].[8] See English phonology
Enindhilyagwa angalya [aŋal̠ʲa] 'place' Laminal post-alveolar
Faroese[9] telgja [ˈtʰɛʎt͡ʃa] 'to carve' Allophone of /l/ before palatal consonants.[9] Sometimes voiceless [ʎ̥].[9] See Faroese phonology
Franco-Provençal balyi [baʎi] 'give'
Galician illado [iˈʎaðo] 'insulated' (m.) Many Galician speakers are nowadays yeístas because of influence from Spanish
Greek ήλιος  [ˈiʎos]  'sun' Postalveolar.[10] See Modern Greek phonology
Hungarian Northern dialects[11] lyuk [ʎuk] 'hole' Alveolo-palatal.[12] Modern standard Hungarian has undergone a phenomenon akin to Spanish yeísmo, merging /ʎ/ into /j/. See Hungarian ly and Hungarian phonology
Italian[2] figlio [ˈfiʎːo] 'son' Alveolo-palatal.[2] Realized as fricative [ʎ̝] in a large number of accents.[13] See Italian phonology
Korean 실례 sillye [ɕil̠ʲl̠ʲe] 'discourtesy' Alveolo-palatal. See Korean phonology
Leonese llibru [ˈʎiβɾu] 'book'
Norwegian Northern and central dialects[14] alle [ɑʎːe] 'all' See Norwegian phonology
Occitan Northern miralhar [miɾaˈʎa] 'to reflect' See Occitan phonology
Southern
Gascon hilh [hiʎ] 'son'
Portuguese Many dialects[15] sandália [sɐ̃ˈdal̠ʲɐ] 'sandal' There is no contrast of [lj ~ lʲ ~ l̠ʲ ~ ʎ] for either /li̯/ or /ʎ/ in Brazilian Portuguese.[16][17] Historically diminished in caipira and hinterland nordestino areas due to more advanced yeísmo-like phenomenon, also affecting in various degrees all of Brazil.[18]
Most speakers ralho [ˈʁal̠ʲu] 'I scold' Alveolo-palatal in European Portuguese.[19] Contrasts with both /l/ and [j], sounds to which phantom Brazilian /ʎ/ tends to evolve to (especially when not before rounded vowels).[17][20] See Portuguese phonology
Quechua[21] qallu [qaʎu] 'tongue'
Romanian Transylvanian dialects[22] lingură [ʎungurə] 'spoon' Corresponds to [l] in standard Romanian. See Romanian phonology
Scottish Gaelic[23] till [tʲʰiːʎ] 'return' Alveolo-palatal. See Scottish Gaelic phonology
Serbo-Croatian[24] љуљaшка / ljuljaška [ʎ̟ǔʎ̟a̠ːʃka̠] 'swing (seat)' Palato-alveolar.[24] See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Sissano piyl [piʎ] 'fish'
Slovak ľúbiť  [ˈʎuːbɪc]  'to love' Merges with /l/ in southern dialects. See Slovak phonology
Spanish Castilian[25] millón [miˈʎõ̞n] 'million' For most speakers, this sound has merged with /ʝ/, a phenomenon called yeísmo. See Spanish phonology
Ukrainian ліс [l̠ʲis] 'forest' Alveolo-palatal. See Ukrainian phonology

See also

References

  1. Recasens (2013:2), citing Ladefoged (1997:602)
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Recasens et al. (1993:222)
  3. Recasens (2013:11)
  4. Recasens (2013:10–13)
  5. Such as Vanvik (1979)
  6. An example of a scholar disagreeing with this position is Scholtz (2009). On page 15, she provides a phoneme chart for Trøndersk, in which /ʎ/ is included. Under the phoneme chart she writes "Vanvik also lists /ʎ̥/ as an underlying phoneme, but that’s ridiculous :)." She provides no further explanation as to why it is ridiculous.
  7. Vanvik (1979:37)
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 Wells (1982:490)
  9. 9.0 9.1 9.2 Árnason (2011:115)
  10. Arvaniti (2007:20)
  11. Benkő (1972:?)
  12. Recasens (2013:10)
  13. Ashby (2011:64): "(...) in a large number of Italian accents, there is considerable friction involved in the pronunciation of [ʎ], creating a voiced palatal lateral fricative (for which there is no established IPA symbol)."
  14. Skjekkeland (1997:105–107)
  15. Considerações sobre o status das palato-alveolares em português
  16. Aspectos fonéticos, fonológicos e sociolinguísticos das palatais lateral e nasal
  17. 17.0 17.1 Stein (2011:223)
  18. Aragão (2009:170)
  19. Teixeira et al. (2012:321)
  20. Aragão (2009:168)
  21. Ladefoged (2005:149)
  22. Pop (1938), p. 30.
  23. Oftedal (1956:?)
  24. 24.0 24.1 Jazić (1977:?), cited in Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996:188)
  25. Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003:255)

Bibliography