Hungarian ly

Ly is the twentieth letter of the Hungarian alphabet. Its Hungarian name is elipszilon {{IPA|/ɛlːipsilon/}}. Now, it can represent the same phoneme {{IPA|/j/}} (palatal approximant) as the Hungarian letter j, but historically, it represented the different phoneme {{IPA|/ʎ/}} (palatal lateral approximant).

It is used this way only in Hungarian. In Hungarian, even if two characters are put together to make a different sound, they are considered one letter, and even acronyms keep the letter intact.

The combination lj (considered two separate letters, L and J) is also common in Hungarian and is even pronounced {{IPA|[ʎ]}} by many speakers. However, even it is sometimes subject to the same reduction to {{IPA|/j/}} that ly has been, mainly if it is at the end of a word.

Originally, the digraph letter ly was used to represent the palatal lateral {{IPA|/ʎ/}}, just as the digraph letter ny is still used to represent the palatal nasal {{IPA|/ɲ/}}. However, in the eastern dialects as well as in the standard dialect, the phoneme {{IPA|/ʎ/}} lost its lateral feature and merged with {{IPA|/j/}} (akin to Spanish yeísmo). The Hungarian letter ly came to be pronounced the same as the Hungarian letter j. In the western dialects, {{IPA|/ʎ/}} lost its palatal feature and merged with {{IPA|/l/}} (alveolar lateral approximant). In the northern dialects, the phoneme {{IPA|/ʎ/}} has been preserved.BENKŐ Loránd; IMRE Samu (ed.): The Hungarian Language. Janua Linguarum, Series Practica, No. 134. The Hague: Mouton de Gruyter (1972).

The digraph ly was also used for the sound {{IPA|/ʎ/}} in Croatian alphabet before Gaj's Latin Alphabet was introduced.[http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AlphabetiSerborum_1841.jpg Alphabeti Serborum]

These examples are Hungarian words that use the letter ly, with the English translation following:

• furulya = flute
• amely = which
• helyi = local
• golyó = ball
• lyuk = hole
• kehely = goblet
• folyó = river

{{reflist}}

{{Latin script}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ly}}

Category:Latin-script digraphs

Category:Hungarian language