The Illuminated Letter "L"

Illuminated capital "L" with red and navy decorative boarders.

Illuminated capital "L" within a text box.

Illuminated capital "L" with a song bird.

Additional Illuminated letter "L"s will be uploaded here in the future. Please read the Terms of Use for images found on this page. All letters are restored and sometimes redrawn by Kathy Grimm.

L (named el /ˈɛl/) is the 12th letter of the modern English alphabet and the ISO basic Latin alphabet.

       Lamedh may have come from a pictogram of an ox goad or cattle prod. Some have suggested a shepherd's staff.

       In English orthography, ⟨l⟩ usually represents the phoneme /l/, which can have several sound values, depending on whether it occurs before or after a vowel. The alveolar lateral approximant (the sound represented in IPA by lowercase [l]) occurs before a vowel, as in lip or blend, while the velarized alveolar lateral approximant (IPA [ɫ]) occurs in bell and milk. This velarization does not occur in many European languages that use ⟨l⟩; it is also a factor making the pronunciation of ⟨l⟩ difficult for users of languages that lack ⟨l⟩ or have different values for it, such as Japanese or some southern dialects of Chinese. A medical condition or speech impediment restricting the pronunciation of ⟨l⟩ is known as lambdacism.

       In English orthography, ⟨l⟩ is often silent in such words as walk or could (its presence can modify the preceding vowel letter's sound; otherwise walk might be pronounced to rhyme with sock). ⟨l⟩ is usually silent in such words as palm and psalm; however, there is some regional variation. Read more . . .