Silent double-L?

[Alison Murie]

On May 20, 2010, at 8:52 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Silent double-L?
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>
> At 5/20/2010 01:23 PM, Alice Faber wrote:
>> I wouldn't call that silent, though. In such words, double-L is
>> pronounced [y], i.e., [pai-yard], not [pai-ard]. Lack of lateral
>> articulation doesn't mean the L is silent.
>
> Silent enough for government work.  My friend who asks is teaching
> ESL, and has some Asian students with L and R difficulties.  So a Y
> sound would qualify as a silent L.  (Perhaps I should have noted that
> originally.)
>
> From the lack of examples, I infer that it exists in English only in
> (a very few?) words taken from French.
>
> Joel
~~~~~~~~~
And Spanish, if the Y sound qualifies: e.g., llama.
AM

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