I have heard y/ll pronounced in two different ways:





He oído pronunciar y/ll de dos maneras diferentes:




15 Answers 15



  • in other regions, ll and y have merged to /ʝ/ (yeísmo)
  • in very few areas, ll and y have merged to /ʎ/ (lleísmo)


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On the other hand, the consonant pronunciation of y is:



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The second pronunciation you mention is almost exclusively used in the Argentina / Uruguay region and Ecuador. Any other country in Latin America uses the first pronunciation.

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  • I've never heard that pronunciation from a Mexican... That is interesting. – Saul Delgado Nov 16 '11 at 15:01

How y, ll are pronounced

In >90% of Spanish dialects1, ⟨ll⟩ and ⟨y⟩ represent the same sound /ʝ/ (like an English y) 2. This is probably the sound most learners of Spanish will want to use, unless you want to emulate a specific accent.

These are the various ways the letters are pronounced around the Spanish-speaking world (along with examples of the sounds in English):

  • ll, y = /ʝ/ (i.e. yellow) most of Latin America; Southern Spain "yeísmo"
  • ll, y = /ʒ/ (i.e. seizure) much of Central, Western Rioplatense "zheísmo"
  • ll, y = /ʃ/ (i.e. sheep) Buenos Aires; Río de Plata; Uruguay "sheísmo"

  • ll = /ʎ/ (i.e. million)
    y = /ʝ/ (i.e. yellow) Much of Northern Spain 3

Maps of regional pronunciations

Note, these images do not distinguish between yeísmo/zheísmo/sheísmo.

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Regions with the merger in dark blue, and regions with distinction in pink.

Notes & sources

1. Valoración socioeconómica de los rasgos fonéticos dialectales de la lengua española, German Coloma (2011)

2, In emphatic speech, word initially, or after an n, m or l, the y sound in Spanish can affricate, sounding as [ɟʝ] (similar to a less 'forceful' version of an English j e.g. jug).
This is analogous to /b/, /d/, /ɡ/ being realized as approximants [β], [ð], [ɣ] in all but these contexts in Spanish.

3. Also found in areas of:
Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, the central Andes, Andean and Northeastern regions of Argentina, southern Chile and the Philippines
• in some rural areas of Castille and León, Castilla-La Mancha, Murcia and Extremadura,
• in some bilingual speakers of la Comunidad Valenciana,​ Cataluña, Asturias, Galicia, Navarra and the Basque Country

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  • Good summary of the wikipedia article, however if I understand correctly the pink areas do not have yeismo so they pronounce different the Y form the Ll and that is not correct at least for the half of Colombia shown in pink. Anyway +1 – DGaleano Dec 28 '17 at 13:35

Also, to complete what others have said, it's worth pointing out that the /ʝ/ phoneme can be voiced as either an approximant or an affricate /ɟʝ/ (at the beginning of a word or after /n/ or /m/).

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Examples: llama, calle, Hermosillo. See here.

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My Salvadorian friends pronounce both as y as in "yo", as did my Spanish teacher (from Spain).

My Colombian food vendors pronounce both as "zh or j".

In cuba i hear y for the most part for both but have heard "j" for y and in a sportscast I heard one guy pronounce it "bee-ya clara" and the other guy "bee-ja clara" for Villa Clara, so i guess it depends on how their parents spoke.

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This differs from region to region, even within countries. I speak Ecuadorian Spanish, and though we have such a small country you can hear the following pronunciations of the ll:

  • Classic Central Andean Accent:

    • Lleísmo #1 (distinction between LL and Y) with: LL realized as [ʒ] and Y realized as [ʝ]
    • Lleísmo #2 (stigmatized, correlated with lower classes) with: LL realized as /ʃ/ and Y realized as [ʝ].
    • Yeísmo: Generally seen among the younger generation, especially in more urban areas like Quito. Both sounds are realized as [ʝ].
  • Northern (Pastuso/Carchense) Accent:

    • Lleísmo #3: LL realized as /li/ and Y realized as [ʝ].
  • Southern Andean Accent:

    • Classical lleísmo: LL realized as /ʎ/ and Y realized as [ʝ].
  • Coastal Accent:

    • Yeísmo generalized.
  • Amazonian Accent:

    • Depends, but there is even an accent of lleísmo with the following distinction: LL realized as [tʃ] and Y realized as [ʝ].

En fin... It's very interesting to see how the language has changed over time. One of the reasons lleísmo has remained strong in Ecuador is that there is lleísmo within Quichua. I wonder if the older languages spoken in the central Andes didn't have /ʎ/ and only [ʒ] and this is why Quichua words like Killa are realized with the [ʒ] in this region.

Anyhow, it's also interesting to see how the language is changing quickly towards yeísmo in all regions, especially with what seems to be a new pan-Latin American standardized conception of an accent rising. We can all choose to pronounce the way we want to, but it's funny, in the United States I do get a lot of heads turned for my [ʒ] pronunciation, especially with Mexicans, who seem to have not heard this pronunciation in their country.

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  • @walen Thank you. Look forward to using the site more and getting a better understanding of its processes. – Opining May 7 '18 at 16:15
  • @Opining, do you happen to know if there is a juxtaposition such as "LL realized as [ʒ] and Y realized as [ʝ]" in Spain? – Dan Sep 22 '19 at 1:14
  • Very interesting - this is the first time I've heard of dialectal variation of the realization of /ʎ/ within non yeísmo dialects. Do you know of any sources or example recordings online that show this? – brazofuerte Sep 27 '19 at 9:05



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  • This is interesting. I'm Colombian and for me it is impossible to distinguish the Yellow sound form the Jello, so I think I pronounce them the same. So I guess for me both Y and Ll have a sound in between Yellow and Jello. – DGaleano Dec 28 '17 at 13:26

English speakers don't have the sounds of Y nor Ll (Actually is almost the same in most places) , except when Y sounds like our i:

Tengo un hijo Y una hija

But you all can use the sounds /ja/ and we will comprehend you

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