IPA: ʎ
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The consonant [ʎ] is palatal because the hard palate is the target of the tongue body. It’s a lateral because during its production, the back of the tongue makes contact with the hard palate while the front of the tongue sinks down, channeling the air laterally around the tongue, down the side (or sometimes both sides) of the mouth. It’s an approximant (and not a fricative) because the speech organs are less tensed during the articulation (thus, being closer to the spirants). (Note that the laterals approximants are frequently called liquids.)
It is written in different ways – in:
* Basque, Catalan, Quechua as ll,
* Cimbrian, Croatian as lj,
* Corsican, Italian, Galician as gl,
* Portuguese (certain accents/ pronunciation), Occitan, Breton as lh,
* Belarusian, Serbian as љ,
* Slovak as ľ,
* Latvian as ļ,
* Faroese as l + affricate (lk(j), lg(j)).
Source: Babel Babble № 5, Consonants: palatal lateral approximant
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