What means
A Latin letter whose sound depends on the language’s spelling system.
The Heiltsuk lambda is a Latin letter in that writing system; the related λ/dh spelling represents a lateral consonant, made with air passing along the sides of the tongue. Liqʼwala/Kwakʼwala and Pilagá use Latin lambda too, but each orthography sets its value.
vs λ: which letter is this?
is Latin; λ is Greek.
The Latin letter takes its shape from Greek lambda, then developed a separate role in Latin-script orthographies. A Unicode proposal records lambda in North American phonetic work in 1926; in 1934, Herzog and colleagues recommended lambda and lambda with stroke for North American orthographies. Pilagá adopted a revised alphabet with lambda in 1996.
Heiltsuk and Liqʼwala use a turned-Y capital, while Pilagá builds its capital from the large lowercase form.
Keyboard and font support solve different problems
Heiltsuk materials used a modified typewriter by 1984; before Unicode support, special fonts carried missing letters. The shared Unicode character-encoding standard encoded in 2024, giving it a portable text identity, though a font still needs its own glyph to display it.
Precise inside its orthography; outside Heiltsuk, Liqʼwala/Kwakʼwala, or Pilagá spelling, its value needs context.
Do not replace with Greek λ or turned-Y when exact spelling matters.
Who writes
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What it means when someone sends it to you
3 readingsA letter with a lateral-consonant value; air flows along the sides of the tongue.
Don't confuse it with
3
Questions people ask
3can I use in a Greek word?
No. is a Latin-script character; Greek words use Greek letters. It can appear in a Greek-language discussion when quoting this other orthography.
Does have one pronunciation?
No. Its value depends on the orthography; a Heiltsuk reading does not set the value in Pilagá or another language.
Why does look like a turned Y?
Heiltsuk and Liqʼwala use that capital design, while Pilagá uses the form of its large lowercase letter.
More like this
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How to type or find
- Also called
- Latin lambda · lambda (Latin letter)
- Search it as
- Heiltsuk lambda · Liqʼwala lambda · Kwakʼwala lambda · Pilagá lambda · turned Y lambda · capital lambda · Latin lambda Unicode
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
Ꟛ\A7DACodes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.