Ľ

Template:Distinguish2 Ľ/ľ is a grapheme found only in the Slovak alphabet. It is an L with a caron diacritical mark, more normally ˇ but simplified to look like an apostrophe with L, and is pronounced as palatal lateral approximant [ʎ], similar to the "lj-" sound in Ljubljana or million.^[1]

Examples:

podnikateľ: "businessman"; skladateľ: "composer"; bádateľ: "researcher"
ľalia: "Lilium"; ľan: "linen"; ľuľkovec zlomocný: "Atropa belladonna"
ľad: "ice"; ľadovec: "iceberg"
Poľana, mountain range in Central Slovakia; Sečovská Poľanka, historical name for village Sečovská Polianka in Eastern Slovakia used from 1920 until 1948
Ján Figeľ, Slovak politician who was European Commissioner for Education, Training and Culture from 2004 to 2009; Jozef Ľupták, teacher who took part in the Slovak National Uprising and was killed in action on October 27, 1944

Note that an approximation using an ' apostrophe is sometimes found in some English texts, for example "L'udovit Stur" (sic) for correct Slovak Ľ-caron in Ľudovít Štúr. This incorrect usage is sometimes the result of an OCR error.

References

^ Háček (Caron) - Diacritics Project @ Typo.cz "In Czech and Slovak, the caron has a special vertical form used on tall characters (ď, ť, ľ, Ľ). Its introduction was no doubt a solution to the limited vertical space available on the body of a piece of metal type. The regular caron (ě, š, č, ň, …) ..."

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[1] Háček (Caron) - Diacritics Project @ Typo.cz "In Czech and Slovak, the caron has a special vertical form used on tall characters (ď, ť, ľ, Ľ). Its introduction was no doubt a solution to the limited vertical space available on the body of a piece of metal type. The regular caron (ě, š, č, ň, …) ..."

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