El (Cyrillic)

Not to be confused with Hebrew letter ת.

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

Cyrillic letter El
Phonetic usage:	[l]
Name:	людиѥ
Numeric value:	30
Derived from:	Greek letter Lambda (Λ λ)
The Cyrillic script
Slavic letters
А А́ А̀ А̂ А̄ Ӓ Б В Г Ґ Д Ђ Ѓ Е Е́ Ѐ Е̂ Е̄ Ё Є Є́ Ж З З́ Ѕ И І І́ Ї И́ Ѝ И̂ Ӣ Й Ј К Л Љ М Н Њ О О́ О̀ О̂ Ō Ӧ П Р С С́ Т Ћ Ќ У У́ У̀ У̂ Ӯ Ў Ӱ Ф Х Ц Ч Џ Ш Щ Ъ Ъ̀ Ы Ы́ Ь Ѣ Э Э́ Ю Ю́ Ю̀ Я Я́ Я̀
Non-Slavic letters
Ӑ А̊ А̃ Ӓ̄ А̨ Ә Ә́ Ә̀ Ә̃ Ӛ Ә̄ В̌ Ғ Г̑ Г̣ Г̌ Г̂ Г̆ Г̈ Ҕ Ӻ Ғ̌ Ӷ Д́ Д̀ Д̌ Д̈ Д̣ Д̆ Ӗ Е̃ Ё̄ Є̈ Җ Ӝ Ӂ Ж̣ Ҙ Ӟ З̌ З̣ З̆ Ԑ Ԑ́ Ԑ̈ Ӡ И̃ Ҋ Ӥ І̄́ І̨ Ј̵ Қ К̈ Ӄ Ҡ Ҟ Ҝ К̣ Ԛ Л́ Л̀ Ӆ Ԯ Ԓ Л̈ Ӎ Н́ Н̀ Н̃ Н̄ Ӊ Ң Ԩ Ӈ Ҥ О̆ О̃ Ӧ̄ Ө Ө̄ Ө́ Ө̆ Ӫ Ҩ Ԥ П̈ Р́ Р̌ Ҏ С̀ С̌ Ҫ С̣ Т́ Т̈ Т̌ Т̣ Ҭ Т‍Ь У̃ Ӳ У̊ Ӱ̄ Ү Ү́ Ү̈ Ұ Х̣ Х̱ Х̮ Х̑ Х̌ Ҳ Ӽ Ӿ Һ Һ̈ Һ̌ Ԧ Ц́ Ц̌ Ц̈ Ҵ Ч̀ Ҷ Ҷ̣ Ӵ Ӌ Ҹ Ч̇ Ч̣ Ҽ Ҿ Ш̆ Ш̈ Ш̣ Ы̆ Ы̄ Ӹ Ҍ Э̆ Э̄ Э̇ Ӭ Ӭ́ Ӭ̄ Ю̆ Ю̈ Ю̈́ Ю̄ Я̆ Я̄ Я̈ Я̈́ Ԝ Ӏ
Archaic letters
Б̣ Ԁ Ԃ Ꚁ] Ꚅ Ꙃ Ꙅ Ꙁ Ԅ Ԇ Ꚉ Ꚃ Ꚕ Ꙇ Ꙉ Ԟ Ԉ Ԡ Ԋ Ԣ Ѻ Ꙩ Ꙫ Ꙭ ꙮ Ꚙ Ꚛ Ҧ Ҁ Ҁ° Ԍ Ԏ Ꚋ Ꚍ Ѹ Ꙋ Ѡ Ꙍ Ѿ Ꙡ Ꚏ Ꚓ Ꚇ Ꚗ Ꙏ Ꙑ Ѣ́ Ѣ̈ Ѣ̆ Ꙓ Ꙕ Ꙗ Ѥ Ѧ Ꙙ Ѫ Ꙛ Ѩ Ꙝ Ѭ Ѯ Ѱ Ѳ Ѵ Ѷ Ꙟ Ԙ Ꙣ Ꙥ Ꙧ Ԕ Ԗ Ꚑ Ԫ Ԭ Г̧ Г̄ К̂ К̅ З̀ Т̀
List of Cyrillic letters Cyrillic digraphs
v t e

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

Allography

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

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

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

• alveolar lateral approximant /l/, like the pronunciation of ⟨l⟩ in "lip"
• palatalized alveolar lateral approximant /lʲ/
• velarized alveolar lateral approximant /ɫ/, like the pronunciation of ⟨l⟩ in "bell" and "milk"
• Labiovelar approximant /w/, like the ⟨w⟩ in "water"
• voiced alveolar lateral fricative /ɮ/ and its palatalized equivalent /ɮʲ/

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/
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

• Λ λ : Greek letter Lambda
• Љ љ : Cyrillic letter Lje
• Ӆ ӆ : Cyrillic letter El with tail
• Ԓ ԓ : Cyrillic letter El with hook
• Ԯ ԯ : Cyrillic letter El with descender
• L l : Latin letter L
• Ł ł : Latin letter L with stroke

Computing codes

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

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

References

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