What I find interesting about this is that this transition also happened in highly unrelated languages such as Hungarian, Greek and Swedish, not only in related Portuguese and French.

In Hungarian, /ʎ/ in most dialects turned into /j/, but the spelling ⟨ly⟩ was preserved, hence lyuk [juk].
In Swedish, /lj/ turned into /j/ in word-initial positions, but the spelling ⟨lj⟩ was preserved, hence ljus [ˈjʉːs].
In Cypriot Greek, /lj/ is often pronounced as [ʝː], especially by younger speakers. In Standard Modern Greek, it always surfaces as [ʎ].

I guess people find it hard to pronounce /ʎ/ but are too inert to change the spelling.

[–] DigitalAudio@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 year ago

My real question would be: if it’s hard to pronounce, why did it appear long ago in so many different languages?

Portuguese still keeps it, with /lh/ like trabalho which is different from /j/ like janeiro.

[–] ichmagrum@feddit.de 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Does the pink area in Spain include Madrid?

[–] zksmk@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 year ago

The city itself is blue, but the northern outskirts are purple.

[–] Ignacio@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 year ago

I don't know, but where I live (Asturias) I never noticed any distinction between y and ll, despite being a mixed area.

[–] verity_kindle@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago

News this Spanglish user can use! Muthas grathias 🥳

[–] DigitalAudio@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

If Bogota is a mixed area, surely that’s because of people from its northern regions like Cundinamarca and Boyacá coming into the city, because being there you don’t hear distinction very often at all.

Is that Mendoza in the Andes between Argentina and Chile? Super interesting how they’re a small pocket of distinction just there.

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