Palatal lateral approximant: Encyclopedia II - Palatal lateral approximant - In other languages

Palatal lateral approximant - In other languages

Palatal lateral approximant - Catalan

Catalan has the palatal lateral approximant as a phoneme, where it is denoted by the digraph ll as in lluna /ˈʎunǝ/ (moon), enllaç /ǝɲˈʎas/ (link). The sound is very common in the language and has less phonactical restrictions than in neighbouring Spanish, being allowed in syllable coda position; e.g., vermell /vǝrˈmeʎ/ (red), conill /kuˈniʎ/ (rabbit). It also makes use of the geminate version of this sound, /ʎː/, spelled with the trigraph tll, as in the name of Antoni Gaudí's famous Casa Batlló /bǝˈʎːo/ in Barcelona; however, the geminate is much more phonotactically restricted than the non-geminate and only occurs between vowels within a word. The phenomenon of ieisme, analogous to that of Spanish yeísmo, exists but it is not at all as widespread in Catalan as it is in Spanish, and in general it is still strongly looked down upon as "bad" or "foreigner" pronunciation by many Catalan native speakers, especially by those of the prestige central dialect.

Palatal lateral approximant - Croatian

Croatian has the palatal lateral approximant as a phoneme, and it is denoted by lj, as in odijeljen /ˈodijeːʎen/ (separated).

Palatal lateral approximant - Faroese

Faroese has the palatal lateral approximant as a phoneme, and it occurs when l is followed by an affricate/palatal plosive, fylgja /fɪʎʤa/, /fɪʎɟa/ (to follow), fylki /fɪʎʧɪ/, /fɪʎcɪ/ (Norwegian fylke)

Palatal lateral approximant - Greek

In Greek, this sound exists as a palatalized allophone for lambda iota (unaccented) (-λι-). It is found in such words as γυαλιά /ʝaʎa/ (glasses). Note that in that example, a similar palatalization occurs to the γ.

Palatal lateral approximant - Hungarian

Hungarian had the palatal lateral approximant as a phoneme in earlier times. It is still denoted as ly as in király /kiraːj/ (king). While still realised as [ʎ] in some marginal dialects, in standard Hungarian /ʎ/ has merged into /j/, a phenomenon analogous to that of Spanish yeísmo.

Palatal lateral approximant - Italian

Italian has the palatal lateral approximant as a phoneme, where it is denoted by the trigraph gli, as in the article gli /ʎi/ (the); note the i in this trigraph is not pronounced except when it is the only vowel in the syllable (as in the previous example). Italian has a phonemic contrast of geminate (long) versus simple (short) for most consonants, but this is not the case with the palatal lateral (as neither with the palatal nasal spelled gn). The simple [ʎ] and geminate [ʎː] sounds are allophonic and the single phoneme /ʎ/ is usually realized as a geminate between vowels, as in figlio /ˈfiʎːo/ (son), there being no minimal pairs to contrast the long against the short sound.

Palatal lateral approximant - Latvian

In Latvian this sound is written as Ļ ļ.

Palatal lateral approximant - Portuguese

Portuguese has the palatal lateral approximant as a phoneme, and it is denoted by lh, as in ovelha /oˈveʎa/ (sheep).

Palatal lateral approximant - Quechua

Quechua has the palatal lateral approximant as a phoneme, and it is denoted by ll, as in allin /ˈaʎin/ (good).

Palatal lateral approximant - Slovak

Slovak has the palatal lateral approximant as a phoneme, and it is denoted by ľ (like l plus ’, but in one character), as in roľa /ˈroʎa/ (field).

Palatal lateral approximant - Spanish

Spanish traditionally has had the palatal lateral approximant as a phoneme, which it spells ll in the standard orthography, as in millón /miˈʎon/ (million). However, a phenomenon called yeísmo is nowadays widespread in the majority of the Spanish-speaking areas, consisting of the loss of this palatal lateral phoneme and its merger into the phoneme spelled y (thus millón turns into /miˈʝon/ or /miˈʒon/, depending on the dialect). Note this merger only takes place at the phonological level, not in the orthography, although spelling mistakes switching ll with y or viceversa are common among yeísta speakers. On the other hand, both consonants ll and y are more phonotactically restricted than ll is in neighbouring Catalan and they are not allowed in syllable coda position. When Catalan names and words with ll in this position are borrowed into Spanish, the sound is replaced with that of the alveolar lateral l, because Spanish speakers find it difficult to pronounce an ll there; e.g., the surname of Catalan-born politician Josep Borrell is pronounced as if it were spelled Borrel by Spanish speakers. However, this replacement is considered annoying by many Catalan speakers, even though the majority of Spanish speakers are yeístas and would find it very difficult to pronounce an ll not only at the end of a syllable, but anywhere.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "In other languages", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki