Sound laws · Law 16 · Clusters

L + yod

LI, LE + vowel

Spanish

j [x]

French

il, ill [j]

Italian

gli [ʎʎ]

Portuguese

lh [ʎ]

Romanian

i [j] (the l lost)

Catalan

ll [ʎ]

What happened

In spoken Latin, an unstressed I or E before another vowel became a glide [j] (yod), and L + j merged into a palatal l, [ʎ]. Italian kept it, doubled between vowels, and Portuguese (lh) and Catalan (ll) kept it single. French later lost the lateral, leaving the glide [j], still spelled -il, -ill-, and Romanian did the same (foaie, pai). Spanish hardened ʎ to ʒ, devoiced it to ʃ and pushed it back to [x], the same road as medial CL.

Examples

Latin	Italian	Spanish	French	Portuguese	Romanian	Catalan	English relative
FOLIAM‘leaf (ro foaie 'sheet')’	foglia	hoja	feuille	folha	foaie	fulla	foliage
FĪLIAM‘daughter’	figlia	hija	fille	filha	—	filla	filial
ALIUM‘garlic’	aglio	ajo	ail	alho	ai	all
PALEAM‘straw’	paglia	paja	paille	palha	pai	palla
MELIŌREM‘better’	migliore	mejor	meilleur	melhor	—	millor	ameliorate
CONSILIUM‘counsel, advice’	consiglio	consejo	conseil	conselho	—	consell	counsel

Decoder

Italian gli = Portuguese lh = Catalan ll = Spanish j = French ill/il: foglia, folha, fulla, hoja, feuille; aglio, alho, all, ajo, ail. Romanian has just i: foaie, ai.

Exceptions

French fils comes from the nominative FĪLIUS, not FĪLIUM, so it shows no palatal (and its l is silent). Romanian ai 'garlic' is now mostly usturoi in everyday speech. Learned words keep li: filial, conciliar, auxiliar.

Watch it happen: FĪLIUM

What happened

Examples

Decoder

Exceptions

In your word bank