Ll

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 ⟨l.⟩ would provide (etymologically, in latinisms coming from a gemination).

⟨ll⟩ is also used in syllable-coda position in monosyllabic words or compounds derived from them, such as "will", "mall", and "killjoy" In Welsh, ⟨ll⟩ stands for a voiceless alveolar lateral fricative sound (IPA: [ɬ]).

[5] A variation of this digraph, ⟨l-l⟩, is used to separate a verb form that ends in -l and the enclitics lu, la, lo, los or les.

[5] In Catalan, ⟨ll⟩ represents the phoneme /ʎ/, as in llengua (language, tongue), enllaç (linkage, connection), or coltell (knife).

[7] While Philippine languages like Tagalog and Ilocano write ⟨ly⟩ or ⟨li⟩ when spelling Spanish loanwords, ⟨ll⟩ still survives in proper nouns.

Hence the surnames Llamzon, Llamas, Padilla, Bellen, Basallote and Villanueva are respectively pronounced [ljɐmˈzon]/[ljɐmˈson], [ˈljɐmas], [pɐˈdɪːlja], [bɪːlˈjɛːn], [bɐsɐlˈjotɛ] and [ˌbɪːljanuˈwɛːba]/[ˌvɪːljanuˈwɛːva].

In Icelandic, the ⟨ll⟩ can represent [tɬ] (similar to a voiceless alveolar lateral affricate),[9] [ɬ] or [l] depending on which letters surround it.

In the Gwoyeu Romatzyh romanization of Mandarin Chinese, final ⟨-ll⟩ indicates a falling tone on a syllable ending in /ɻ/, which is otherwise spelled ⟨-l⟩.