A voiced alveolar lateral fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages.
The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents voiced dental, alveolar, and postalveolar lateral fricatives is , sometimes referred to as lezh.
In 1938, a symbol shaped similarly to heng was approved as the official IPA symbol for the voiced alveolar lateral fricative, replacing . It was suggested at the same time, however, that a compromise shaped like something between the two may also be used at the author's discretion. It was this compromise version, , that was included in the 1949 Principles of the International Phonetic Association and the subsequent IPA charts, until it was replaced again by at the 1989 Kiel Convention. Despite the Association's prescription, is nonetheless seen in literature from the 1960s to the 1980s.
There are several Unicode characters based on lezh (î):
Features of a voiced alveolar lateral fricative:
The voiced alveolar lateralâÂÂmedian fricative (also known as a "lisp" fricative) is a consonantal sound pronounced with simultaneous lateral and central airflow.
However, it does not have the grooved tongue and directed airflow, or the high frequencies, of a sibilant.