Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jul 12, 2026

Barred lambda

The barred lambda, is a modified letter of the Greek alphabet, commonly encountered in North American linguistics. It is used by the Salishan and Wakashan languages in Canada. In Americanist phonetic notation, it is also known as running man or blam, and is used to transcribe a voiceless alveolar lateral affricate. It is sometimes also called. In physics, it represents the reduced Compton wavelength, i.e. the Compton wavelength λ divided by 2π.

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Jul 12, 2026
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Barred lambda
Ƛ ƛ
Upper and lower case of Latin barred lambda
Usage
Writing systemLatin script
Typealphabetic
Language of originAmericanist phonetic notation
Sound values
In UnicodeU+A7DC, U+019B
History
Development

The barred lambda (Ƛ ƛ) (U+A7DC Ƛ LATIN CAPITAL LETTER LAMBDA WITH STROKE, U+019B ƛ LATIN SMALL LETTER LAMBDA WITH STROKE), is a modified letter of the Greek alphabet, commonly encountered in North American linguistics. It is used by the Salishan and Wakashan languages in Canada.1 In Americanist phonetic notation, it is also known as running man2 or blam,34 and is used to transcribe a voiceless alveolar lateral affricate [t͡ɬ]. It is sometimes also called . In physics, it represents the reduced Compton wavelength, i.e. the Compton wavelength λ divided by 2π.

Capital letter barred lambda
Small letter barred lambda
Cased forms of the barred lambda. The capital was assigned to Unicode in 2024.

It was first used in a phonetics context in American Anthropologist in 1934:

λ for [dl] has been used in Eskimo by Jenness ... ƛ for [tł] is an innovation formed from λ as ł from l.5

It is also used for the affricate [t͡ɬ] in transcribing the Sahaptin language, e.g., iƛúpna ‘he jumped’, and it is commonly used for the same purpose in several languages of the Caucasus, such as Hinuq.6 In addition, its counterpart with a combining comma above right (U+0315), ƛ̓, is used for many of the Salish languages, such as Klallam, for an alveolar lateral ejective affricate [t͡ɬʼ].

Encodings

Character information
Preview Ƛ ƛ
Unicode name LATIN CAPITAL LETTER LAMBDA WITH STROKE LATIN SMALL LETTER LAMBDA WITH STROKE
Encodings decimal hex dec hex
Unicode 42972 U+A7DC 411 U+019B
UTF-8 234 159 156 EA 9F 9C 198 155 C6 9B
Numeric character reference Ƛ Ƛ ƛ ƛ
References

References

  1. Humchitt, Robyn; Jacquerye, Denis; King, Kevin (2023-07-17). "L2/23-191: Proposal to Encode 3 Additional Latin Characters for Wakashan and Salishan Languages to the Unicode Standard" (PDF).
  2. [1] Archived 2008-07-03 at the Wayback Machine (strictly speaking, this refers to the glottalized version, [t͡ɬʼ])
  3. Bringhurst, Robert (2004). The Elements of Typographic Style. Hartley & Marks. p. 288.
  4. Rosendorf, Theodore; Lupton, Ellen (2009). The Typographic Desk Reference. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Books. p. 34.
  5. Herzog, George; Newman, Stanley S.; Sapir, Edward; Swadesh, Mary Haas; Swadesh, Morris; Voegelin, Charles F. (Oct–Dec 1934). "Some orthographic recommendations". American Anthropologist. 36 (4): 629–631. doi:10.1525/aa.1934.36.4.02a00300.
  6. Forker, Diana (2013-04-16). A Grammar of Hinuq:. DE GRUYTER. doi:10.1515/9783110303971. ISBN 978-3-11-030376-6.