A voiced alveolar lateral affricate is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet is (often simplified to ), and in Americanist phonetic notation it is (lambda). It is rarely a phoneme of its own, usually being in free variation or an allophone of , or .
Features of a voiced alveolar lateral affricate:
Voiced alveolar lateral affricates are rare. Sandawe has been transcribed with , but the sound is more post-alveolar or palatal than alveolar. Consonants transcribed with in Athabaskan and Wakashan languages are often tenuis affricates or have a lateral release or , but some such as Chipewyan have a truly voiced affricate. In the Nguni languages occurs after nasals: is pronounced , with an epenthetic stop, in at least Xhosa and Zulu.