Ll

File:Latin digraph L L.svg

Latin Ll digraph.

Ll/ll is a digraph that occurs in several languages.

English

Template:No sources section In English, Template:Angbr often represents the same sound as single Template:Angbr: . 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 Template:Angbr would provide (etymologically, in latinisms coming from a gemination). Different English language traditions use Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr in different words: for example the past tense form of "travel" is spelt "" in British English but "" in American English. See also: Doubled consonants. Template:Angbr is also used in syllable-coda position in monosyllabic words or compounds derived from them, such as "", "", and ""

Welsh

File:Latin letter middle-welsh LL.svg

The Middle-Welsh LL ligature.
Unicode: U+1EFA and U+1EFB.

In Welsh, Template:Angbr stands for a voiceless alveolar lateral fricative sound (IPA: ). This sound is very common in place names in Wales because it occurs in the word , for example, , where the Template:Angbr appears twice, or , where (in the long version of the name) the Template:Angbr appears five times – with two instances of and two consecutive Template:Angbr in .

In Welsh, Template:Angbr is a separate digraph letter from Template:Angbr (e.g., sorts before ). 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 Template:Unichar and Template:Unichar. 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.

Romance languages

Asturian

File:Cartelu cola llínia C1 de Renfe Cercaníes dende La Corredoria.jpg

Template:Angbr used on a sign in Cercanías Asturies as part of the place name

In the standard Asturian orthography published by the Academy of the Asturian Language in 1981, Template:Angbr represents the phoneme (palatal lateral approximant).

A variation of this digraph, Template:Angbr, is used to separate a verb form that ends in -l and the enclitics , , , or . This is pronounced as a geminated Template:Angbr . For example, ("it is worth it").

Another variation of this digraph, Template:Angbr, is used to represent a set of dialectal phonemes used in Western Asturian that correspond to in other dialects: (voiced retroflex plosive), (voiced retroflex affricate), (voiceless retroflex affricate) or (voiceless alveolar affricate). This may also be written as Template:Angbr in devices that do not support the Unicode characters Template:Unichar and Template:Unichar.

Catalan

In Catalan, Template:Angbr represents the phoneme Template:IPAslink, as in (language, tongue), (linkage, connection), or (knife).

L with middle dot

File:Latin digraph L with middle dot L.svg

Latin Ll digraph with middle dot

In order to not confuse Template:Angbr with a geminated Template:Angbr , Catalan uses a middle dot (interpunct or in Catalan) in between Template:Angbr. For example ("excellent"). The first character in the digraph, Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr, is included in the Latin Extended-A Unicode block at U+013F (uppercase) and U+0140 (lowercase) respectively.

In Catalan typography, Template:Angbr is intended to fill two spaces, not three, so the interpunct is placed in the narrow space between the two Template:Angbrs: Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr. However, it is common to write Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr, occupying three spaces. Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr, although sometimes seen, are incorrect.

Galician

In official Galician spelling the Template:Angbr combination stands for the phoneme (palatal lateral approximant, a palatal counterpart of ).

Spanish

Template:IPA soundboxTemplate:IPA soundbox

In Spanish, Template:Angbr 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).

• The digraph is called , pronounced , , etc. in different dialects.
• The letter was collated after Template:Angbr as a separate entry from 1803 until April 1994 when the X Congress of the Association of Spanish Language Academies adopted standard Latin alphabet collation rules. Since then, the digraph Template:Angbr has been considered a sequence of two characters. (A similar situation occurred with the Spanish-language digraph ch.)
• Hypercorrection leads some to wrongly capitalize Template:Angbr as a single letter, as with the Dutch IJ, for example * instead of . In handwriting, Template:Angbr is written as a ligature of two Template:Angbrs, with distinct uppercase and lowercase forms.
• Today, most Spanish speakers pronounce Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr as the same sound, a phenomenon called yeísmo. In much of the Spanish-speaking Americas, and in many regions of Spain, Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr are pronounced (voiced palatal fricative); speakers in Colombia and Tabasco, Mexico, as well as Rioplatense speakers in both Argentina and Uruguay, pronounce Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr as (voiced postalveolar fricative) or (voiceless postalveolar fricative). The original pronunciation of Template:Angbr —the phoneme (palatal lateral approximant)— still exists in northern Spain (mostly in rural areas) and in Andes Mountains. In parts of Colombia and in the Andean regions of Ecuador, Template:Angbr is pronounced but Template:Angbr is pronounced .

Philippine languages

While Philippine languages like Tagalog and Ilocano write Template:Angbr or Template:Angbr when spelling Spanish loanwords, Template:Angbr still survives in proper nouns. However, the pronunciation of Template:Angbr is simply rather than . Hence the surnames Llamzon, Llamas, Padilla, Bellen, Basallote and Villanueva are respectively pronounced /, , , , and /.

Furthermore, in Ilocano Template:Angbr represents a geminate alveolar lateral approximant , like in Italian.

Icelandic

In Icelandic, the Template:Angbr can represent (similar to a voiceless alveolar lateral affricate), or depending on which letters surround it. appears in ("full", masculine), appears in ("full", neuter), and appears in ("full", neuter genitive). The geographical name Eyjafjallajökull includes the sound twice.

Broken L

In Old Icelandic, the broken L ligature appears in some instances, such as (field) and (all). It takes the form of a lowercase Template:Angbr 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.

Other languages

In Albanian, Template:Angbr stands for the sound , while Template:Angbr is pronounced as the velarized sound .

File:Greenlandic and Faroese Permanent Representation to the EU.jpg

Template:Angbr appearing in Greenlandic text. The text reads .

In Central Alaskan Yupʼik and the Greenlandic language, Template:Angbr stands for .

In the Gwoyeu Romatzyh romanization of Standard Mandarin, the final Template:Angbr indicates a falling tone on a syllable ending in .

In Haida (Bringhurst orthography), Template:Angbr is glottalized .

See also

• Lh (digraph)
• Lj (digraph)
• Hungarian ly