A voiced 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 , a rotated lowercase letter .
Many languages that were previously thought to have a palatal lateral approximant actually have a lateral approximant that is, broadly, alveolo-palatal: the sound 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,, citing or postalveolo-prepalatal. None of the 13 languages investigated by , many of them Romance, has a 'true' palatal. That 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.
What is transcribed is often actually a voiced alveolo-palatal lateral approximant. There is no dedicated symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound, which is one reason that is used. If more precision is desired, it may be transcribed or . There is a non-IPA letter, ; (, plus the curl found in the symbols for alveolo-palatal sibilant fricatives ), which is used especially in Sinological circles.
A voiced palatal lateral approximant contrasts phonemically with its voiceless counterpart in the Xumi language spoken in China.
Features
Features of a voiced palatal lateral approximant:
Occurrence Language Word IPA Meaning Notes Albanian Malsia e Madhe 'flower' Arbëresh Arvanitika Aragonese 'needle' Aromanian 'rabbit' Astur-Leonese Asturian 'language' Where is absent and replaced by different sounds (depending on dialect), a phenomenon known as , its corresponding sounds are spelled . Leonese Mirandese Aymara 'sad' Basque 'bulb' Breton 'family' Bulgarian 'love' Alveolo-palatal. See Bulgarian phonology Catalan Most dialects 'lake' Alveolo-palatal. May merge with in some areas (ieisme). See Catalan phonology Eastern Aragon 'key' Allophone of in consonant clusters.Chipayalloqa 'bank'See Chipaya languages English Australian 'million' Frequent realization of the sequence Canadian (Atlantic and Newfoundland) County Donegal, cited in Realization of the sequence . General American Common realization of the sequence ; sometimes realized as . See English phonology Hiberno-English Common realization of the sequence New England New York City New Zealand Received Pronunciation South African Southern American Philippine 'gorilla' Common realization of between vowels due to Spanish influence. Enindhilyagwa 'place' Laminal post-alveolar Faroese 'to carve' Allophone of before palatal consonants. Voiceless before fortis consonnants. See Faroese phonology Franco-Provençal 'give' French Some dialects, 'butterfly' Corresponds to in modern standard French. See French phonology Galician Standard 'insulated' Most Galician speakers, especially the urban and younger populations, are nowadays yeístas because of influence from Spanish Greek 'sun' Postalveolar. See Modern Greek phonology Hungarian Northern dialects 'hole' Alveolo-palatal. Modern Standard Hungarian has undergone a phenomenon akin to Spanish yeísmo, merging into . See Hungarian ly and Hungarian phonology Irish 'leaf' Alveolo-palatal. Some dialects contrast it with palatalized alveolar . See Irish phonology Italian 'son' Alveolo-palatal. Realized as fricative in a large number of accents.: "(...) in a large number of Italian accents, there is considerable friction involved in the pronunciation of , creating a voiced palatal lateral fricative (for which there is no established IPA symbol)." See Italian phonology Ivilyuat Ivil̃uɂat 'the speaking [Ivilyuat]' ('Ivilyuat language') Jaqaruallaka 'pumpkin'See Jaqaru Language Jeberollinllin 'name'See Jebero Language Korean Seoul dialect 'qianlima' is palatalized to before and before palatal consonant allophones Latvian 'people' See Latvian phonology Mapudungun 'nine' See Mapuche language Norwegian Northern and central dialects 'all' See Norwegian phonology Occitan Standard 'to reflect' See Occitan phonology Paiwan Standard 'banana' See Paiwan languagePaezsilli'reed'See Paezan languages Portuguese Standard 'garlic' Alveolo-palatal in European Portuguese. May instead be , (Northeast) or (Caipira), especially before unrounded vowels. See Portuguese phonology Many dialects 'sandal' Possible realization of post-stressed plus vowel. Quechua 'tongue' Romanian Transylvanian dialects 'spoon' Corresponds to in standard Romanian. See Romanian phonology Romansh Sursilvan 'son' Sutsilvan Surmiran Puter Vallader Rumantsch Grischun Scottish Gaelic 'return' Palatal or palatalised apical dental. Can manifest as , or among some younger speakers, as . See Scottish Gaelic phonology Serbo-Croatian, cited in / , 'swing (seat)' Palato-alveolar. See Serbo-Croatian phonology Sissano 'fish' Slovak 'to love' Merges with in western dialects. See Slovak phonology Spanish ALPI Andean (from Argentina to Colombia) 'horse' Found in traditional speakers in Peninsular Spanish. Also found in Andean countries and Paraguay. For most speakers, this sound has merged with , a phenomenon called yeísmo. See Spanish phonology. "Caballo" with yeísmo is pronounced Castilian, Aragonese and Catalonian outside of large cities Central areas in Extremadura Eastern and southwestern Manchego Paraguayan Philippine Very few areas in Andalusia Murcian 'fall' Ultralleísmo, rural Xumi Lower 'musk deer' Alveolo-palatal; contrasts with the voiceless . Upper 'correct, right'
See also Yeísmo, a feature of Spanish dialects that have merged this sound with a voiced palatal fricative. Index of phonetics articles
Notes
References