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El (Cyrillic)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cyrillic letter El
Phonetic usage:[l], [w]
Name (Early Cyrillic alphabet):людиѥ
Numeric value:30
Derived from:Greek letter Lambda (Λ λ)
The Cyrillic script
Slavic letters
АА́А̀А̂А̄ӒБВ
ГҐДЂЃЕЕ́Ѐ
Е̄Е̂ЁЄЖЗЗ́Ѕ
ИІЇИ́ЍИ̂Ӣ
ЙЈКЛЉМНЊ
ОО́О̀О̂ŌӦПР
СС́ТЋЌУУ́У̀
У̂ӮЎӰФХЦЧ
ЏШЩЪЪ̀ЫЫ́
ЬѢЭЭ́ЮЮ́Ю̀Я
Я́Я̀
Non-Slavic letters
ӐА̊А̃Ӓ̄ӔӘӘ́Ә̃
ӚВ̌ԜГ̑Г̇Г̣Г̌Г̂
Г̆Г̈г̊ҔҒӺҒ̌
ғ̊ӶД́Д̌Д̈Д̣Д̆
ӖЕ̃Ё̄Є̈ԐԐ̈ҖӜ
ӁЖ̣ҘӞЗ̌З̣З̆Ӡ
И̃ӤҊҚӃҠҞҜ
К̣к̊қ̊ԚЛ́ӅԮ
ԒЛ̈ӍН́ӉҢԨ
ӇҤО̆О̃Ӧ̄ӨӨ̄Ө́
Ө̆ӪԤП̈ҎР̌С̌Ҫ
С̣С̱Т́Т̈Т̌Т̇Т̣Ҭ
У̃ӲУ̊Ӱ̄ҰҮҮ́
Х̣Х̱Х̮Х̑Х̌ҲӼх̊
Ӿӿ̊ҺҺ̈ԦЦ̌Ц̈Ҵ
ҶҶ̣ӴӋҸЧ̇Ч̣
ҼҾШ̣Ы̆Ы̄Ӹ
ҌҨЭ̆Э̄Э̇ӬӬ́Ӭ̄
Ю̆Ю̈Ю̄Я̆Я̄Я̈Ӏʼ
ˮ
Archaic or unused letters
А̨Б̀Б̣Б̱В̀Г̀Г̧
Г̄Г̓Г̆Ҕ̀Ҕ̆ԀД̓
Д̀Д̨ԂЕ̇Е̨
Ж̀Ж̑Џ̆
Ꚅ̆З̀З̑ԄԆ
ԪІ̂І̣І̨
Ј̵Ј̃К̓К̀К̆Ӄ̆
К̑К̇К̈К̄ԞК̂
Л̀ԠԈЛ̑Л̇Ԕ
М̀М̃Н̀Н̄Н̧
Н̃ԊԢН̡Ѻ
П̓П̀
П́ҦП̧П̑ҀԚ̆Р́
Р̀Р̃ԖС̀С̈ԌҪ̓
Т̓Т̀ԎТ̑Т̧
Ꚍ̆ѸУ̇
У̨ꙋ́Ф̑Ф̓Х́Х̀Х̆Х̇
Х̧Х̾Х̓һ̱ѠѼ
ѾЦ̀Ц́Ц̓Ꚏ̆
Ч́Ч̀Ч̆Ч̑Ч̓
ԬꚆ̆Ҽ̆Ш̀
Ш̆Ш̑Щ̆Ꚗ̆Ъ̄Ъ̈
Ъ̈̄Ы̂Ы̃Ѣ́Ѣ̈Ѣ̆
Э̨Э̂Ю̂
Я̈Я̂Я̨ԘѤѦѪ
ѨѬѮѰѲѴ
Ѷ
El, from Alexandre Benois' 1904 alphabet book

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

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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

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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.

Forms

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El has two forms: one form resembles Greek capital Lambda (Ʌ ʌ), and the other form resembles the Hebrew letter ת (Л л).

Pronunciation

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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.

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Computing codes

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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

Use in mathematics

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El is sometimes used to represent the Clausen function, and if not, the capital greek letter Lambda is.

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

References

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