El (Cyrillic)

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Cyrillic letter El
Cyrillic letter El - uppercase and lowercase.svg
Phonetic usage:[l]
Name:людиѥ
Numeric value:30
Derived from:Greek letter Lambda (Λ λ)
The Cyrillic script
Slavic letters
АА́А̀А̂А̄ӒБВ
ГҐДЂЃЕЕ́Ѐ
Е̄Е̂ЁЄЄ́ЖЗЗ́
ЅИІІ́ЇЇ́И́Ѝ
И̂ӢЙЈКЛЉМ
НЊОО́О̀О̂ŌӦ
ПРСС́ТЋЌУ
У́У̀У̂ӮЎӰФХ
ЦЧЏШЩЪЪ̀Ы
Ы́ЬѢЭЭ́ЮЮ́Ю̀
ЯЯ́Я̀
Non-Slavic letters
ӐА̊А̃Ӓ̄ӔӘӘ́Ә̃
ӚВ̌Г̑Г̇Г̣Г̌Г̂Г̆
Г̈ҔҒӺҒ̌ӶCyrillic capital letter Ghe with hook.svgД́
Д̌Д̈Д̣Д̆ӖЕ̃Ё̄Є̈
ҖӜӁЖ̣ҘӞЗ̌З̣
З̆ԐԐ̈ӠИ̃ӤҊҚ
ӃҠҞҜК̣ԚЛ́Ӆ
ԮԒЛ̈ӍН́ӉҢ
ԨӇҤО̆О̃Ӧ̄ӨӨ̄
Ө́Ө̆ӪԤП̈Р̌ҎС̌
ҪС̣С̱Т́Т̈Т̌Т̇Т̣
ҬCyrillic capital letter Te Soft-sign.svgУ̃ӲУ̊Ӱ̄ҰҮ
Ү́Х̣Х̱Х̮Х̑Х̌ҲӼ
ӾҺԦЦ̌Ц̈ҴҶҶ̣
ӴӋCyrillic capital letter Che with hook.svgҸЧ̇Ч̣ҼҾ
Ш̈Ш̣Ы̆Ы̄ӸҌ
ҨЭ̆Э̄Э̇ӬӬ́Ӭ̄Ю̆
Ю̈Ю̈́Ю̄Я̆Я̄Я̈Я̈́Ԝ
Ӏ
Archaic or unused letters
Cyrillic capital letter script A.svgА̨Б̀Б̣В̀Г̀Г̧Г̄
Г̓Г̆Ҕ̀Ҕ̆Cyrillic capital letter split by middle ring Ghe.svgД̓Д̀Д̨
ԀԂЕ̇Е̨Ж̑Cyrillic small letter Zhe with long middle leg and stroke through descender.svg
Cyrillic capital letter bashkir Ie.svgЏ̆Ꚅ̆З̀
З̑ԄԆԪCyrillic capital letter Shha with Cil top.svg
І̂І̨Cyrillic capital letter bashkir Dha.svgЈ̵Ј̃К̓
К̀К̆Ӄ̆К̑К̇К̈К̄Ԟ
К̂Cyrillic small letter Ka with loop.svgCyrillic small letter ka with ascender.svgЛ̀ԠԈЛ̑
Л̇ԔМ̀М̃Н̀Н̄Н̧
Н̃ԊԢН̡Ѻ
Cyrillic capital letter open at bottom O.svgCyrillic capital letter O with left notch.svgП̓П́П̧
ҦП̑ҀԚ̆Cyrillic capital letter Shha with hook.svgР́Р̀Р̃
ԖС̀С̈ԌҪ̓Cyrillic capital letter long Es.svgТ̓Т̀
ԎТ̑Т̧Ꚍ̆Cyrillic small letter Te El Soft-sign.svgCyrillic small letter voiceless L with comma above.svg
ѸCyrillic capital letter script U.svgУ̇У̨Ф̑Ф̓Х́
Х̀Х̆Х̇Х̧Х̓Cyrillic capital letter bashkir Ha.svgѠ
ѼѾЦ́Ц̓Cyrillic capital letter Tse with long left leg.svgꚎ̆
Cyrillic capital letter Cil.svgCyrillic capital letter Cil with bar.svgЧ́Ч̀Ч̑Ч̓Cyrillic capital letter Char.svg
ԬꚆ̆Ҽ̆Ш̆Ш̑Щ̆
Ꚗ̆Cyrillic capital letter Che Sha.svgЫ̂Ы̃Ѣ́
Ѣ̈Ѣ̆Э̨Ю̂Я̂
Я̨ԘѤѦѪѨ
ѬѮѰѲѴѶ

El (Л л Or Ʌ ʌ; italics: Л л or Ʌ ʌ) is a letter of the Cyrillic script.

El commonly represents the alveolar lateral approximant /l/. In Slavic languages it may be either palatalized or slightly velarized; see below.

Allography[edit]

In some typefaces the Cyrillic letter El has a grapheme which may be confused with the Cyrillic letter Pe (Пп). Note that Pe has a straight left leg, without the hook. An alternative form of El (Ʌ ʌ) is more common in Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Serbian.

History[edit]

The Cyrillic letter El was derived from the Greek letter lambda (Λ λ).

In the Early Cyrillic alphabet its name was людиѥ (ljudije), meaning "people".[1]

In the Cyrillic numeral system, Л had a value of 30.

Pronunciation[edit]

As used in the alphabets of various languages, El represents the following sounds:

The /l/ phoneme in Slavic languages has two realizations: hard ([l], [ɫ], or [lˠ], exact pronunciation varies) and soft (pronounced as [lʲ]) – see palatalization for details. Serbian and Macedonian orthographies use a separate letter Љ for the soft /l/ – it looks as a ligature of El with the soft sign (Ь). In these languages, ⟨Л⟩ denotes only hard /l/. Pronunciation of hard /l/ is sometimes given as [l], but it is always more velar than [l] in French or German.

Slavic languages except Serbian and Macedonian use another orthographic convention to distinguish between hard and soft /l/, so ⟨Л⟩ can denote either variant depending on the subsequent letter.

The pronunciations shown in the table are the primary ones for each language.

Language Position in
alphabet
Pronunciation
Belarusian 13th /ɫ/, /lʲ/
Bulgarian 12th /w~ɫ/, /l/
Kazakh 16th /ɫ~l/
Macedonian 14th /l/
Mongolian 13th /ɮ/, /ɮʲ/
Ossetian 16th /ɫ~l/
Russian 13th /ɫ/, /lʲ/
Serbian 13th /l/
Ukrainian 16th /ɫ/, /lʲ/

In addition, л was formerly used in Chukchi to represent the voiceless alveolar lateral fricative /ɬ/ but has since been replaced by ԓ.

Related letters and other similar characters[edit]

Computing codes[edit]

Character information
Preview Л л
Unicode name CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER EL CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER EL
Encodings decimal hex dec hex
Unicode 1051 U+041B 1083 U+043B
UTF-8 208 155 D0 9B 208 187 D0 BB
Numeric character reference Л Л л л
Named character reference Л л
KOI8-R and KOI8-U 236 EC 204 CC
Code page 855 209 D1 208 D0
Code page 866 139 8B 171 AB
Windows-1251 203 CB 235 EB
ISO-8859-5 187 BB 219 DB
Macintosh Cyrillic 139 8B 235 EB

External links[edit]

  • The dictionary definition of Л at Wiktionary
  • The dictionary definition of л at Wiktionary

References[edit]

  1. ^ Corbett, Professor Greville; Comrie, Professor Bernard (September 2003). The Slavonic Languages. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-136-86137-6.