Concept
Ll/ll is a digraph that occurs in several languages. In English, often represents the same sound as single : /l/. The doubling is used to indicate that the preceding vowel is (historically) short, or that the "l" sound is to be extended longer than a single would provide (etymologically, in latinisms coming from a gemination). It is worth noting that different English language traditions use and in different words: for example the past tense form of "travel" is spelt "travelled" in British English but "traveled" in American English. See also: American and British English spelling differences#Doubled consonants. In Welsh, stands for a voiceless alveolar lateral fricative sound (IPA: [ɬ]). This sound is very common in place names in Wales because it occurs in the word llan, for example, Llanelli, where the appears twice, or Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, where (in the full name) the appears five times – with two instances of llan. In Welsh, is a separate digraph letter from (e.g., lwc sorts before llaw). In modern Welsh this, and other digraph letters, are written with two symbols but count as one letter. In Middle Welsh it was written with a tied ligature; this ligature is included in the Latin Extended Additional Unicode block as and . This ligature is seldom used in Modern Welsh, but equivalent ligatures may be included in modern fonts, for example the three fonts commissioned by the Welsh Government in 2020. In Catalan, represents the phoneme ʎ, as in llengua (language, tongue), enllaç (linkage, connection), or coltell (knife). In order to not confuse /ʎ/ with a geminated /ll/, Catalan uses a middle dot (interpunct or punt volat in Catalan) in between . For example excel·lent ("excellent"). The first character in the digraph, and , is included in the Latin Extended-A Unicode block at U+013F (uppercase) and U+0140 (lowercase) respectively. In Catalan typography, is intended to fill two spaces, not three, so the interpunct is placed in the narrow space between the two s: and . However, it is common to write and , occupying three spaces.