Hungarian ly

Ly is the twentieth letter of the Hungarian alphabet. Its Hungarian name is elipszilon /ɛlːipsilon/. Now, it can represent the same phoneme /j/ (palatal approximant) as the Hungarian letter j, but historically, it represented the different phoneme /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 [ʎ] by many speakers. However, even it is sometimes subject to the same reduction to /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 /ʎ/, just as the digraph letter ny is still used to represent the palatal nasal /ɲ/. However, in the eastern dialects as well as in the standard dialect, the phoneme /ʎ/ lost its lateral feature and merged with /j/ (akin to Spanish yeísmo). The Hungarian letter ly came to be pronounced the same as the Hungarian letter j. In the western dialects, /ʎ/ lost its palatal feature and merged with /l/ (alveolar lateral approximant). In the northern dialects, the phoneme /ʎ/ has been preserved.[1]

The digraph ly was also used for the sound /ʎ/ in Croatian alphabet before Gaj's Latin Alphabet was introduced.[2]

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