| Ipa Symbol: | ɬ |
| Ipa Number: | 148 |
| Decimal: | 620 |
| X-Sampa: | K |
| Kirshenbaum: | s<lat> |
| Braille: | 236 |
| Braille2: | l |
| Imagefile: | IPA Unicode 0x026C.svg |
| Above: | Voiceless alveolar lateral approximant |
| Ipa Symbol: | l̥ |
| Ipa Number: | 155 402A |
| X-Sampa: | l_0 |
| Above: | voiceless velarized alveolar lateral approximant |
| Ipa Symbol: | ɫ̥ |
The voiceless alveolar lateral fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents voiceless dental, alveolar, and postalveolar lateral fricatives is pronounced as /[ɬ]/, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is K.
The symbol pronounced as /[ɬ]/ is called "belted l" and is distinct from "l with tilde", pronounced as /[ɫ]/, which transcribes a different soundthe velarized (or pharynɡealized) alveolar lateral approximant, often called "dark L".[1]
Some scholars also posit the voiceless alveolar lateral approximant distinct from the fricative. More recent research distinguishes between "turbulent" and "laminar" airflow in the vocal tract. Ball & Rahilly (1999) state that "the airflow for voiced approximants remains laminar (smooth), and does not become turbulent".[2] The approximant may be represented in the IPA as (IPA|l̥).
In Sino-Tibetan language group, argue that Burmese and Standard Tibetan have voiceless lateral approximants pronounced as /[l̥]/ and Li Fang-Kuei & William Baxter contrast apophonicaly the voiceless alveolar lateral approximant from its voiced counterpart in the reconstruction of Old Chinese. includes the voiceless velarized alveolar lateral approximant pronounced as /link/.
However, the voiceless dental & alveolar lateral approximant is constantly found as an allophone of its voiced counterpart in British English and Philadelphia English after voiceless coronal and labial stops, who is velarized before back vowels, the allophone of pronounced as /link/ after voiceless dorsal and laryngeal stops is most realized as a voiceless velar lateral approximant. See English phonology.
Features of the voiceless alveolar lateral fricative:[3]
The sound is fairly common among indigenous languages of the Americas, such as Nahuatl and Navajo,[4] and in North Caucasian languages, such as Avar.[5] It is also found in African languages, such as Zulu, and Asian languages, such as Chukchi, some Yue dialects like Taishanese, the Hlai languages of Hainan, and several Formosan languages and dialects in Taiwan.[6]
The sound is rare in European languages outside the Caucasus, but it is found notably in Welsh in which it is written . Several Welsh names beginning with this sound (Llwyd in Welsh pronounced as /ɬʊɨd/, Llywelyn in Welsh pronounced as /ɬəˈwɛlɨn/) have been borrowed into English and then retain the Welsh (ll) spelling but are pronounced with an pronounced as /link/ (Lloyd, Llewellyn), or they are substituted with (fl) (pronounced pronounced as //fl//) (Floyd, Fluellen). It was also found in certain dialects of Lithuanian Yiddish.
The phoneme pronounced as //ɬ// was also found in the most ancient Hebrew speech of the Ancient Israelites. The orthography of Biblical Hebrew, however, did not directly indicate the phoneme since it and several other phonemes of Ancient Hebrew did not have a grapheme of their own. The phoneme, however, is clearly attested by later developments: pronounced as //ɬ// was written with (ש|rtl=yes), but the letter was also used for the sound pronounced as //ʃ//. Later, pronounced as //ɬ// merged with pronounced as //s//, a sound that had been written only with (ס|rtl=yes). As a result, three etymologically distinct modern Hebrew phonemes can be distinguished: pronounced as //s// written (ס|rtl=yes), pronounced as //ʃ// written (ש|rtl=yes) (with later niqqud pointing שׁ), and pronounced as //s// evolving from pronounced as //ɬ// and written (ש|rtl=yes) (with later niqqud pointing שׂ). The specific pronunciation of (ש|rtl=yes) evolving to pronounced as //s// from pronounced as /[ɬ]/ is known based on comparative evidence since pronounced as //ɬ// is the corresponding Proto-Semitic phoneme and is still attested in Modern South Arabian languages, and early borrowings indicate it from Ancient Hebrew (e.g. English: balsam < Greek < Hebrew). The phoneme pronounced as //ɬ// began to merge with pronounced as //s// in Late Biblical Hebrew, as is indicated by interchange of orthographic (ש|rtl=yes) and (ס|rtl=yes), possibly under the influence of Aramaic, and became the rule in Mishnaic Hebrew. In all Jewish reading traditions, pronounced as //ɬ// and pronounced as //s// have merged completely, but in Samaritan Hebrew pronounced as //ɬ// has instead merged into pronounced as //ʃ//.
The pronounced as /[ɬ]/ sound is also found in two of the constructed languages invented by J. R. R. Tolkien, Sindarin (inspired by Welsh) and Quenya (inspired by Finnish, Ancient Greek, and Latin).[7] [8] In Sindarin, it is written as initially and medially and finally, and in Quenya, it appears only initially and is written .
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amis | Kangko dialect | tipi'''d''' | pronounced as /[tipiɬ̪]/ | 'bowl' | Allophonic variation of word-final and sometimes word-initial pronounced as //ɮ̪//. | |
| Mapudungun | Mapudungun; Mapuche: [[Mapudungun alphabet|kagü'''ḻ''']] | pronounced as /[kɜˈɣɘɬ̪]/ | 'phlegm that is spit' | Interdental
| ||
| Norwegian | Trondheim dialect | Norwegian: [[Norwegian orthography|sæ'''l'''t]] | pronounced as /[s̪aɬ̪t̪]/ | 'sold' | Laminal denti-alveolar; allophone of pronounced as //l//. Also described as an approximant. See Norwegian phonology | |
| Scottish Gaelic | Lewis | Gaelic; Scottish Gaelic: [[Scottish Gaelic orthography|fa'''l'''t]] | pronounced as /[fɑɬ̪ˠt̪]/ | 'hair' | Allophone of pronounced as //l̪ˠ// before a pre-aspirated plosive. | |
| Sahaptin | pronounced as /[ɬḵʼɑm]/ | 'moccasins' | Contrasts approximant pronounced as //l//. | |||
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adyghe | Adyghe; Adygei: [[Cyrillic script|плъыжь]] | pronounced as /[pɬəʑ]/ | 'red' | |||
| Ahtna | dze'''ł''' | pronounced as /[tsɛɬ]/ | 'mountain' | |||
| Avar | Avaric: [[Cyrillic script|'''лъ'''абго]] | pronounced as /[ˈɬabɡo]/ | 'three' | |||
| Basay | '''l'''anum | pronounced as /[ɬanum]/ | 'water' | |||
| Berber | Ait Seghrouchen | Berber languages: a'''lt'''u | pronounced as /[æˈɬʊw]/ | 'not yet' | Allophone of pronounced as //lt//. | |
| Brahui | '''تے'''ڷ | pronounced as /[t̪e:ɬ]/ | 'scorpion' | Contrasts pronounced as //l ɬ//. | ||
| Bunun | Isbukun dialect | '''l'''udun | pronounced as /[ɬuɗun]/ | 'mountain' | Voiceless allophone of pronounced as //l// among some speakers. | |
| Bura | Contrasts with pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/. | |||||
| Central Alaskan Yup'ik | ta'''ll'''iq | pronounced as /[taɬeq]/ | 'arm' | |||
| Cherokee | Oklahoma Cherokee | Cherokee: tlha, Cherokee: kiihli | pronounced as /[tɬá]~[ɬá]/, pronounced as /[ɡiːl̥í]~[ɡiːɬí]/ | 'not', 'dog' | In free variation with affricate pronounced as //tɬ// among some speakers. Also an alternative pronunciation of voiceless lateral approximant pronounced as /[l̥]/, a realization of cluster pronounced as //hl//. | |
| Chickasaw | '''lh'''ipa | pronounced as /[ɬipa]/ | 'it is dry' | |||
| Chinese | Taishanese[9] | 三 | pronounced as /[ɬäm˧]/ | 'three' | Corresponds to pronounced as /[s]/ in Standard Cantonese | |
| [[Chinese characters|沙]] | pronounced as /[ɬua˥˧˧]/ | 'sand' | ||||
| Chipewyan | Chipewyan; Dene Suline: '''ł'''ue | pronounced as /[ɬue]/ | 'fish' | |||
| Chukchi | pronounced as /[p(ə)ɬekət]/ | 'shoes' | ||||
| Dahalo | pronounced as /[ɬunno]/ | 'stew' | Contrasts palatal pronounced as //ʎ̝̊// and labialized pronounced as //ɬʷ//. | |||
| Deg Xinag | xindigixidini'''ł'''an' | pronounced as /[xintikixitiniɬʔanʔ]/ | 'she is teaching them' | |||
| Dogrib | Dogrib: '''ł'''o | pronounced as /[ɬo]/ | 'smoke' | Contrasts voiced pronounced as //ɮ//. | ||
| Eyak | qe'''ł''' | pronounced as /[qʰɛʔɬ]/ | 'woman' | Contrasts approximant pronounced as //l//. | ||
| Fali | pronounced as /[paɬkan]/ | 'shoulder' | ||||
| Forest Nenets | [[Cyrillic script|ха'''р'''у]] | pronounced as /[xaɬʲu]/ | 'rain' | Contrasts palatalized pronounced as //ɬʲ//. | ||
| Greenlandic | Kalaallisut; Greenlandic: i'''ll'''u | pronounced as /[iɬɬu]/ | 'house' | Realization of underlying geminate pronounced as //l//. See Greenlandic phonology | ||
| Hadza | '''sl'''eme | pronounced as /[ɬeme]/ | 'man' | |||
| Haida | Haida: tla'ún'''hl''' | pronounced as /[tɬʰʌʔʊ́nɬ]/ | 'six' | |||
| Halkomelem | '''ɬ{{' | pronounced as /[ɬeqw]/ | 'wet' | |||
| Hla'alua | '''lh'''atenge | pronounced as /[ɬɑtɨŋɨ]/ | 'vegetable' | |||
| Hlai | pronounced as /[ɬa⁵³~ɬa³³]/ | 'fish' | Contrasts voiced approximant pronounced as //l//. | |||
| Hmong | Hmong; Mong: [[Romanized Popular Alphabet|'''hl'''i]] | 'moon' | ||||
| Inuktitut | Inuktitut: [[Inuktitut syllabics|ᐊᒃ'''ᖤ'''ᒃ]] | pronounced as /[akɬak]/ | 'grizzly bear' | See Inuit phonology | ||
| Kabardian | Kabardian: [[Cyrillic script|'''лъ'''ы]] | 'blood' | Contrasts voiced pronounced as //ɮ// and glottalic pronounced as //ɬʼ//. | |||
| Kaska | tsį̄ł | pronounced as /[tsʰĩːɬ]/ | 'axe' | |||
| Kham | Gamale Kham[10] | pronounced as /[ɬɐ]/ | 'leaf' | |||
| Khroskyabs[11] | ? | pronounced as /[ɬ-sá]/ | 'kill' (causative) | |||
| Lillooet | '''lh'''ésp | pronounced as /[ɬə́sp]/ | 'rash' | |||
| Lushootseed | '''ł'''ukʷa'''ł''' | pronounced as /[ɬukʷaɬ]/ | 'sun' | |||
| Mapudungun | Mapudungun; Mapuche: [[Mapudungun alphabet|kaü'''l''']] | pronounced as /[kɜˈɘɬ]/ | 'a different song' | Possible utterance-final allophone of pronounced as //l//. | ||
| Mochica | pa'''xll'''ær | pronounced as /[paɬøɾ]/ | Phaseolus lunatus | |||
| Moloko | '''sl'''a | pronounced as /[ɬa]/ | 'cow' | |||
| Mongolian | Mongolian: [[Cyrillic script|'''лх'''агва]] | pronounced as /[ˈɬaw̜ɐk]/ | 'Wednesday' | Only in loanwords from Tibetan; here from ལྷག་པ (lhag-pa) | ||
| Muscogee | Creek: pá'''ɬ'''ko | pronounced as /[pəɬko]/ | 'grape' | |||
| Nahuatl | Nahuatl languages: [[Nahuatl orthography|ā'''l'''tepētl]] | pronounced as /[aːɬˈtɛpɛːt͡ɬ]/ | 'city' | Allophone of pronounced as //l// | ||
| Navajo | Navajo; Navaho: '''ł'''aʼ | pronounced as /[ɬaʔ]/ | 'some' | See Navajo phonology | ||
| Nisga'a | '''hl'''oks | pronounced as /[ɬoks]/ | 'sun' | |||
| Norwegian | Trøndersk | Norwegian: [[Norwegian orthography|ta'''tl'''ete]] | pronounced as /[ˈtɑɬɑt]/ | 'weak', 'small' | Contrasts alveolar approximant pronounced as //l//, apical postalveolar approximant pronounced as //ɭ//, and laminal postalveolar approximant pronounced as //l̠//. | |
| Nuosu | pronounced as /[ɬu³³]/ | 'to fry' | Contrasts approximant pronounced as //l//. | |||
| Nuxalk | p'''ł'''t | pronounced as /[pɬt]/ | 'thick' | Contrasts with affricates pronounced as //t͡ɬʰ// and pronounced as //t͡ɬʼ//, and approximant pronounced as //l//. | ||
| Saanich | '''Ƚ'''el | pronounced as /[ɬəl]/ | 'splash' | |||
| Sandawe | Sandawe: '''lh'''aa | pronounced as /[ɬáː]/ | 'goat' | |||
| Sassarese | mo'''r'''thu | 'dead' | ||||
| Sawi | '''ɬ'''o | pronounced as /[ɬo]/ | 'three' | Contrasts approximant pronounced as //l//. Developed from earlier *tr- consonant cluster. | ||
| Shuswap | '''ɬ'''ept | pronounced as /[ɬept]/ | 'fire is out' | |||
| Sotho | Sotho, Southern: ho '''hl'''a'''hl'''oba | pronounced as /[ho ɬɑɬɔbɑ]/ | 'to examine' | See Sotho phonology | ||
| Swedish | Jämtlandic | Swedish: [[Swedish orthography|ka'''ll'''t]] | pronounced as /[kaɬt]/ | 'cold' | Also occurs in dialects in Dalarna and Härjedalen. See Swedish phonology | |
| Västerbotten dialect | Swedish: behl | [beɬ:] | 'bridle' | |||
| Taos | '''ł'''iwéna | pronounced as /[ɬìˈwēnæ]/ | 'wife' | See Taos phonology | ||
| Tera | '''tl'''eebi | pronounced as /[ɬè̞ːbi]/ | 'side' | |||
| Thao | ki'''lh'''pul | pronounced as /[kiɬpul]/ | 'star' | |||
| Tlingit | Tlingit: '''l'''ingít | pronounced as /[ɬɪ̀nkɪ́tʰ]/ | 'Tlingit' | |||
| Toda | ka'''ł''' | pronounced as /[kaɬ]/ | 'to learn' | Contrasts pronounced as //l ɬ ɭ ɭ̊˔ (ꞎ)//. | ||
| Ukrainian | Poltava subdialect[12] | Ukrainian: [[Ukrainian alphabet|мо'''л'''око]] | pronounced as /[mɔɬɔˈkɔ]/ | 'milk' | Occurs only in Poltava subdialect of Central Dniprovian dialect. | |
| Tsez | [[Cyrillic script|'''лъ'''и]] | 'water' | ||||
| Vietnamese | Gin dialect | Vietnamese: 小 | pronounced as /[ɬiu˧]/ | 'small' | ||
| Welsh | Welsh: [[Welsh orthography|tege'''ll''']] | pronounced as /[ˈtɛɡɛɬ]/ | 'kettle' | See Welsh phonology | ||
| Xhosa | Xhosa: si'''hl'''ala | pronounced as /[síˈɬaːla]/ | 'we stay' | |||
| Xumi | Lower | pronounced as /[ʁul̥o˦]/ | 'head' | Described as an approximant. Contrasts with the voiced pronounced as //l//. | ||
| Upper | pronounced as /[bə˦l̥ä̝˦]/ | 'to open a lock' | ||||
| Yurok[13] | ker'''hl''' | pronounced as /[kɚɬ]/ | 'earring' | |||
| Zulu | Zulu: [[Zulu language#Orthography|i'''hl'''a'''hl'''a]] | pronounced as /[iɬaɬa]/ | 'twig' | Contrasts voiced pronounced as //ɮ//. | ||
| Zuni | Zuni: asdem'''ł'''a | pronounced as /[ʔastemɬan]/ | 'ten' | |||
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aleut | Western Aleut | Aleut: '''hl'''ax̂ | pronounced as /[l̥aχ]/ | 'boy' | Contrasts with voiced /l/. Merged in Eastern Aleut. | |
| Burmese | Burmese: လှ | pronounced as /[l̥a̰]/ | 'beautiful' | Contrasts with voiced /l/. | ||
| Danish | Standard | Danish: [[Danish alphabet|p'''l'''ads]] | pronounced as /[ˈpl̥æs]/ | 'square' | Before pronounced as //l//, aspiration of pronounced as //p, t, k// is realized as devoicing of pronounced as //l//. See Danish phonology | |
| English | pronounced as /[pl̥ʌ̝s]/ | 'plus' | See English phonology | |||
| Norfolk | ||||||
| Estonian | Estonian: [[Estonian alphabet|mah'''l''']] | pronounced as /[mɑ̝hːl̥]/ | 'juice' | Word-final allophone of pronounced as //l// after pronounced as //t, s, h//. See Estonian phonology | ||
| Faroese | Faroese: [[Faroese orthography|hjá'''l'''pa]] | pronounced as /[jɔl̥pa]/ | 'to help' | Allophone of pronounced as //l// before fortis plosives. | ||
| Iaai | pronounced as /[l̥iʈ]/ | 'black' | Contrasts with voiced /l/. | |||
| Icelandic | Icelandic: '''hl'''aða | pronounced as /[l̥aːða]/ | 'warm' | Contrasts with voiced pronounced as //l//. Allophonic variation of pronounced as //l// before fortis plosives. See Icelandic phonology. | ||
| Northern Sámi | Eastern Inland | Northern Sami: bá'''l'''kká | pronounced as /[pæl̥kæ]/ | 'salary' | Allophone of underlying cluster pronounced as //lh// | |
| Pipil | Contrasted voiced pronounced as //l// in some now-extinct dialects. | |||||
| Southern Nambikwara | pronounced as /[haˈlawl̥u]/ | 'cane toad' | Allophonic variation of pronounced as //l//. | |||
| Tibetan | Tibetan: '''Lh'''asa | pronounced as /[l̥asa]/ | 'Lhasa' | |||
| Ukrainian | Standard | Ukrainian: [[Ukrainian alphabet|смис'''л''']] | pronounced as /[s̪mɪs̪l̥]/ | 'sense' | Word-final allophone of pronounced as //l// after voiceless consonants. See Ukrainian phonology | |
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Some Philadelphia speakers | pronounced as /[pɫ̥ɯs]/ | 'plus' | See English phonology | |||
| Turkish | Turkish: [[Turkish alphabet|yo'''l''']] | pronounced as /[ˈjo̞ɫ̟̊]/ | 'way' | Devoiced allophone of velarized dental pronounced as //ɫ//, frequent finally and before voiceless consonants. See Turkish phonology | ||
The sound is conjectured as a phoneme for Proto-Semitic language, usually transcribed as ; it has evolved into Arabic pronounced as /[ʃ]/, Hebrew pronounced as /[s]/:
Among Semitic languages, the sound still exists in contemporary Soqotri and Mehri.[14] In Ge'ez, it is written with the letter Śawt.
| Ipa Symbol: | ʪ |
| Ipa Symbol2: | θ̠ˡ |
| Ipa Symbol3: | ɬ͡θ̠ |
| Ipa Symbol4: | ɬ͡s |
| Above: | Voiceless dental lateral–median fricative |
| Ipa Symbol: | ʪ̪ |
| Ipa Symbol2: | θˡ |
| Ipa Symbol3: | ɬ̪͡θ |
The voiceless alveolar non-sibilant fricative (also known as a "lisp" fricative) is a consonantal sound. Consonants is pronounced with simultaneous lateral and central airflow.
However, it does not have the grooved tongue and directed airflow, or the high frequencies, of a sibilant.
| Language | Word | Meaning | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arabic[15] [16] [17] | Al-Rubu'ah | pronounced as /[θˡˤaim]/ | 'pain' | ||
| Arabic: '''ظ'''امئ | pronounced as /[ʪæːmiː]/ | 'thirsty' | |||
Since the IPA letter "ɬ" has been adopted into the standard orthographies for many native North American languages, a capital letter L with belt "Ɬ" was requested by academics and added to the Unicode Standard version 7.0 in 2014 at U+A7AD.[18] [19]
. Yehoshua Blau. Phonology and Morphology of Biblical Hebrew. 2010. Eisenbrauns. Winona Lake, Indiana. 978-1-57506-129-0.
. Nina Grønnum. 2005. Fonetik og fonologi, Almen og Dansk. 3rd. Akademisk Forlag. Copenhagen. 87-500-3865-6.
. Krishnamurti . Bhadriraju . Bhadriraju Krishnamurti. The Dravidian Languages. 1. Cambridge Language Surveys. 2003. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. 978-0-521-77111-5.
. Gary A. Rendsburg. 1997. Ancient Hebrew Phonology. 65–83. Phonologies of Asia and Africa. Kaye. Alan. Eisenbrauns. 978-1-57506-019-4. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20110720041841/http://jewishstudies.rutgers.edu/component/docman/doc_view/93-ancient-hebrew-phonology. 20 July 2011.
. Svantesson . Jan-Olof . Jan-Olof Svantesson. Tsendina. Anna. Mukhanova Karlsson. Anastasia. Franzen. Vivan. The phonology of Mongolian. 2005. Oxford University Press. 0199260176.
pronounced as /navigation/