How these sounds differ
l͉
Voiced Alveolar Lateral Fricative
- Voicing
- voiced
- Place
- alveolar
- Manner
- lateral fricative
- Class
- consonant
- In languages
- 0 / 500
ɬʲ
Voiceless Alveolar Lateral Fricative
- Voicing
- voiceless
- Place
- alveolar
- Manner
- lateral fricative
- Class
- consonant
- In languages
- 2 / 500
Cross-linguistic distribution
0
Languages with l͉
0
Languages with both
2
Languages with ɬʲ
0 languages in our database contrast both sounds as distinct phonemes. Languages that have one but not the other tend to merge them into a single phoneme — meaning speakers of those languages often struggle to hear the distinction when learning a language that contrasts them.