Ł

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Template:Short description Template:About Template:Distinguish Template:Infobox grapheme

Ł or ł, described in English as L with stroke, is a letter of the Polish, Kashubian, Kurdish, Sorbian, Belarusian Latin, Ukrainian Latin, Wymysorys, Navajo, Dëne Sųłıné, Inupiaq, Zuni, Hupa, Sm'álgyax, Nisga'a, and Dogrib alphabets, several proposed alphabets for the Venetian language, and the ISO 11940 romanization of the Thai script. In some Slavic languages, it represents the continuation of the Proto-Slavic non-palatal Template:Angbr (dark L), except in Polish, Kashubian, and Sorbian, where it evolved further into Template:IPA. In most non-European languages, it represents a voiceless alveolar lateral fricative or similar sound.

Glyph shape Ł

Handwritten uppercase and lowercase Ł

In normal typefaces, the letter has a stroke approximately in the middle of the vertical stem, crossing it at an angle between 70° and 45°, never horizontally. In cursive handwriting and typefaces that imitate it, the capital letter has a horizontal stroke through the middle and looks very similar to the pound sign Template:Char. In the cursive lowercase letter, the stroke is also horizontal and placed on top of the letter instead of going through the middle of the stem, which would not be distinguishable from the letter t. The stroke is either straight or slightly wavy, depending on the style. Unlike Template:Angbr, the letter Template:Angbr is usually written without a noticeable loop at the top. Most publicly available multilingual cursive typefaces, including commercial ones, feature an incorrect glyph for Template:Angbr.[1]

A rare variant of the ł glyph is a cursive double-ł ligature, used in words such as Template:Lang, Template:Lang or Template:Lang (archaic: Allah), where the strokes at the top of the letters are joined into a single stroke.[1]

Polish Ł

In Polish, Template:Angbr is used to distinguish the historical dark (velarized) L [ɫ] from clear L [l]. The Polish Template:Angbr now sounds the same as the English Template:Angbr, [w] as in water (except for older speakers in some eastern Polish dialects where it still sounds velarized).

In 1440, Template:Interlanguage link proposed a letter resembling  ℓ to represent clear L. For dark L he suggested "l" with a stroke running in the opposite direction to the modern version.Template:Citation needed The latter was introduced in 1514–1515 by Stanisław Zaborowski in his Template:Lang. L with stroke originally represented a velarized alveolar lateral approximant Template:IPA,[2] a pronunciation that is preserved in the eastern part of Poland[3] and among the Polish minority in Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine. This pronunciation is similar to Russian unpalatalised Template:Angbr in native words and grammar forms.

In modern Polish, Ł is usually pronounced Template:IPA (as [w] in English wet).[4] This pronunciation first appeared among Polish lower classes in the 16th century. It was considered an uncultured accent by the upper classes (who pronounced Template:Angbr as Template:IPA) until the mid-20th century, when this distinction gradually began to fade.Template:Citation needed

The shift from Template:IPA to Template:IPA in Polish has affected all instances of dark L, even word-initially or intervocalically, e.g. ładny ("pretty, nice") is pronounced Template:IPA, słowo ("word") is Template:IPA, and ciało ("body") is Template:IPA. Ł often alternates with clear L, such as the plural forms of adjectives and verbs in the past tense that are associated with masculine personal nouns, e.g. mały → mali (Template:IPA → Template:IPA). Alternation is also common in declension of nouns, e.g. from nominative to locative, tło → na tle (Template:IPA → Template:IPA).

Polish final Ł also often corresponds to Ukrainian word-final Template:Angbr Ve (Cyrillic) and Belarusian Template:Angbr Short U (Cyrillic). Thus, "he gave" is "dał" in Polish, "дав" in Ukrainian, "даў" in Belarusian (all pronounced Template:IPA), but "дал" Template:IPA in Russian.

Examples

Notable figures

Some examples of words with 'ł':

In contexts where Ł is not readily available as a glyph, basic L is used instead. Thus, the surname Małecki would be spelled Malecki in a foreign country.

In the 1980s, when some computers available in Poland lacked Polish diacritics, it was common practice to use a pound sterling sign (£) for Ł. This practice ceased as soon as DOS-based and Mac computers came with a code page for such characters.

Other languages

In Belarusian Łacinka (both in the 1929[5] and 1962[6][7] versions), Template:Angbr corresponds to Cyrillic Template:Angbr (El), and is normally pronounced Template:IPA (almost exactly as in English pull).

In Navajo and Elaponke, Template:Angbr is used for a voiceless alveolar lateral fricative Template:IPA, like the Welsh double L.[8][9]

Template:Angbr is used in orthographic transcription of Ahtna, an Athabaskan language spoken in Alaska; it represents a breathy lateral fricative.[10][11] It is also used in Tanacross, a related Athabaskan language.[12]

When transcribing Armenian into the Latin alphabet, Template:Angbr may be used to write the letter Template:Angbr Template:IPA, for example Ղուկաս => Łukas. In Classical Armenian, Template:Angbr was pronounced as Template:IPA, which morphed into Template:IPA in both standard varieties of modern Armenian. Other transcriptions of Template:Angbr include Template:Angbr, Template:Angbr or Template:Angbr.

Computer usage[13]

Template:Charmap

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Template:Cite web
  2. ↑ Template:Cite book
  3. ↑ Template:Cite book
  4. ↑ Template:Cite book
  5. ↑ Template:Cite book
  6. ↑ Template:Cite book
  7. ↑ Template:Cite book
  8. ↑ Template:Cite book
  9. ↑ Template:Cite web
  10. ↑ Template:Cite web
  11. ↑ Template:Cite web
  12. ↑ Template:Cite web
  13. ↑ Template:Cite web

Template:Commons category

Template:Latin script

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