Editing Voiced palatal lateral approximant (section)

{{Short description|Consonantal sound represented by ⟨ʎ⟩ in IPA}}
{{Infobox IPA
|ipa symbol  = ʎ
|ipa number  = 157
|decimal     = 654
|xsampa      = L
|braille     = hh
|braille2    = 13456
|imagefile   = IPA Unicode 0x028E.svg
|imagesize   = 150px
}}
{{Infobox IPA
|ipa symbol  = l̠ʲ
|ipa symbol2 = ʎ̟
}}

The '''voiced palatal lateral approximant''' is a type of [[consonant]]al sound used in some [[Speech|spoken]] [[language]]s. The symbol in the [[International Phonetic Alphabet]] that represents this sound is {{angbr IPA|ʎ}}, a rotated lowercase letter {{angbr|y}}, and the equivalent [[X-SAMPA]] symbol is <code>L</code>.

Many languages that were previously thought to have a palatal [[Lateral consonant|lateral]] approximant actually have a lateral approximant that is, broadly, [[Alveolo-palatal consonant|alveolo-palatal]]; that is to say, it 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,<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Recasens|2013|p=2}}, citing {{Harvcoltxt|Ladefoged|1997|p=602}}</ref> or postalveolo-prepalatal.{{sfnp|Recasens|Farnetani|Fontdevila|Pallarès|1993|p=222}} None of the 13 languages investigated by {{Harvcoltxt|Recasens|2013}}, many of them [[Romance languages|Romance]], has a 'true' palatal.{{sfnp|Recasens|2013|p=11}} 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.{{sfnp|Recasens|2013|pp=10–13}}

There is no dedicated symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents the '''alveolo-palatal lateral approximant'''. If precision is desired, it may be transcribed {{angbr IPA|l̠ʲ}} or {{angbr IPA|ʎ̟}}; they are essentially equivalent because the contact includes both the blade and body (but not the tip) of the tongue. There is also a non-IPA letter {{unichar|0234}}; {{color|gray|{{angbr IPA|ȴ}}}} ("l", plus the curl found in the symbols for alveolo-palatal sibilant fricatives {{angle brackets|{{IPA link|ɕ}}, {{IPA link|ʑ}}}}) used especially in Sinological circles.

The voiced palatal lateral approximant contrasts phonemically with its [[voiceless palatal lateral approximant|voiceless counterpart]] {{IPA|/ʎ̥/}} in the [[Xumi language]] spoken in China.{{sfnp|Chirkova|Chen|2013|pp=365, 367–368}}{{sfnp|Chirkova|Chen|Kocjančič Antolík|2013|pp=382–383}}