Ll/ll is a digraph that occurs in several languages.
In English, (ll) often represents the same sound as single (l): pronounced as //l//. The doubling is used to indicate that the preceding vowel is (historically) short, or that the "l" sound is to be extended longer than a single (l.) would provide (etymologically, in latinisms coming from a gemination). It is worth noting that different English language traditions use (l) and (ll) in different words: for example the past tense form of "travel" is spelt "English: travelled" in British English but "English: traveled" in American English. See also: American and British English spelling differences#Doubled consonants. (ll) is also used in syllable-coda position in monosyllabic words or compounds derived from them, such as "English: will", "English: mall", and "English: killjoy"
In Welsh, (ll) stands for a voiceless alveolar lateral fricative sound (IPA: pronounced as /[ɬ]/). This sound is very common in place names in Wales because it occurs in the word Welsh: [[Llan (placename)|llan]], for example, Welsh: italic=no|[[Llanelli]], where the (ll) appears twice, or Welsh: italic=no|[[Llanfairpwllgwyngyll]], where (in the long version of the name) the (ll) appears five times – with two instances of Welsh: llan.
In Welsh, (ll) is a separate digraph letter[1] from (l) (e.g., Welsh: lwc sorts before Welsh: llaw). In modern Welsh this, and other digraph letters, are written with two symbols but count as one letter. In Middle Welsh it was written with a tied ligature; this ligature is included in the Latin Extended Additional Unicode block as and .[2] This ligature is seldom used in Modern Welsh, but equivalent ligatures may be included in modern fonts, for example the three fonts commissioned by the Welsh Government in 2020.[3]
In the standard Asturian orthography published by the Academy of the Asturian Language in 1981, (ll) represents the phoneme pronounced as //ʎ// (palatal lateral approximant).[4]
A variation of this digraph, (l-l), is used to separate a verb form that ends in -l and the enclitics Asturian; Bable; Leonese; Asturleonese: lu, Asturian; Bable; Leonese; Asturleonese: la, Asturian; Bable; Leonese; Asturleonese: lo, Asturian; Bable; Leonese; Asturleonese: los or Asturian; Bable; Leonese; Asturleonese: les. This is pronounced as a geminated (l) pronounced as //ll//. For example, Asturian; Bable; Leonese; Asturleonese: val-lo ("it is worth it").[4]
Another variation of this digraph, (ḷḷ), is used to represent a set of dialectal phonemes used in Western Asturian that correspond to pronounced as //ʎ// in other dialects: pronounced as /[ɖ]/ (voiced retroflex plosive), pronounced as /[ɖʐ]/ (voiced retroflex affricate), pronounced as /[ʈʂ]/ (voiceless retroflex affricate) or pronounced as /[t͡s]/ (voiceless alveolar affricate). This may also be written as (l.l) in devices that do not support the Unicode characters and .[4]
In Catalan, (ll) represents the phoneme pronounced as /link/, as in Catalan; Valencian: llengua (language, tongue), Catalan; Valencian: enllaç (linkage, connection), or Catalan; Valencian: coltell (knife).
In order to not confuse (ll) pronounced as //ʎ// with a geminated (l) pronounced as //ll//, Catalan uses a middle dot (interpunct or Catalan; Valencian: punt volat in Catalan) in between (ŀl). For example Catalan; Valencian: excel·lent ("excellent"). The first character in the digraph, (Ŀ) and (ŀ), is included in the Latin Extended-A Unicode block at U+013F (uppercase) and U+0140 (lowercase) respectively.
In Catalan typography, (l·l) is intended to fill two spaces, not three,[5] so the interpunct is placed in the narrow space between the two (l)s: (ĿL) and (ŀl). However, it is common to write (L·L) and (l·l), occupying three spaces. (L.L) and (l.l), although sometimes seen, are incorrect.
In official Galician spelling the (ll) combination stands for the phoneme pronounced as //ʎ// (palatal lateral approximant, a palatal counterpart of pronounced as //l//).
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In Spanish, (ll) was considered from 1754 to 2010 the fourteenth letter of the Spanish alphabet because of its representation of a palatal lateral articulation consonant phoneme (as defined by the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language).[6]
While Philippine languages like Tagalog and Ilocano write (ly) or (li) when spelling Spanish loanwords, (ll) still survives in proper nouns. However, the pronunciation of (ll) is simply pronounced as /[lj]/ rather than pronounced as /[ʎ]/. Hence the surnames Llamzon, Llamas, Padilla, Bellen, Basallote and Villanueva are respectively pronounced pronounced as /[ljɐmˈzon]//pronounced as /[ljɐmˈson]/, pronounced as /[ˈljɐmas]/, pronounced as /[pɐˈdɪːlja]/, pronounced as /[bɪːlˈjɛːn]/, pronounced as /[bɐsɐlˈjotɛ]/ and pronounced as /[ˌbɪːljanuˈwɛːba]//pronounced as /[ˌvɪːljanuˈwɛːva]/.
Furthermore, in Ilocano (ll) represents a geminate alveolar lateral approximant pronounced as //lː//, like in Italian.
In Albanian, (L) stands for the sound pronounced as //l//, while (Ll) is pronounced as the velarized sound pronounced as //ɫ//.
In Icelandic, the (ll) can represent pronounced as /[tɬ]/ (similar to a voiceless alveolar lateral affricate),[8] pronounced as /[ɬ]/ or pronounced as /[l]/ depending on which letters surround it. pronounced as /[tɬ]/ appears in Icelandic: fullur ("full", masculine), pronounced as /[ɬ]/ appears in Icelandic: fullt ("full", neuter), and pronounced as /[l]/ appears in Icelandic: fulls ("full", neuter genitive). The geographical name Eyjafjallajökull includes the pronounced as /[tɬ]/ sound twice.
In Old Icelandic, the broken L ligature appears in some instances, such as Norse, Old: vꜹꝇum (field) and Norse, Old: oꝇo (all).[9] It takes the form of a lowercase (l) with the top half shifted to the left, connected to the lower half with a thin horizontal stroke. This ligature is encoded in the Latin Extended-D Unicode block at U+A746 (uppercase) and U+A747 (lowercase), displaying as Ꝇ and ꝇ respectively.
In Central Alaskan Yupʼik and the Greenlandic language, (ll) stands for pronounced as //ɬː//.
In the Gwoyeu Romatzyh romanization of Mandarin Chinese, final (-ll) indicates a falling tone on a syllable ending in pronounced as //ɻ//, which is otherwise spelled (-l).
In Haida (Bringhurst orthography), (ll) is glottalized pronounced as //ˀl//.