ll

ll is a digraph used in several languages, most notably Welsh, Spanish, and Catalan. In Welsh, ll represents a single consonant: the voiceless alveolar lateral fricative [ɬ]. In Spanish and Catalan, ll is typically a digraph formed by two Ls; historically it represented a palatal lateral approximant [ʎ], though many Spanish dialects today merge it with the palatal fricative [ʝ] or with the same “y” sound in yeísmo. The status of ll as a distinct letter has changed: the Spanish Royal Academy removed ll (and ch) as official letters in 1994, treating ll as a two-letter combination rather than an independent symbol.

In computing, ll is commonly used as a command alias in Unix-like shells for listing directory contents in long format. It is not standardized and depends on user configuration; common variants include ll='ls -la' or ll='ls -l --color=auto'. Aliases like these help users invoke detailed listings quickly, though their exact behavior can vary between systems and configurations.

Beyond these uses, ll appears in orthographies of several languages as a grapheme representing a specific sound, and is frequent in loanwords and proper names. Its varied realizations—[ʎ], [ʝ], [ɬ], or the same as 'y' depending on dialect—reflect broader patterns of sound change and orthographic conventions across Iberian languages and Welsh.