l-deletion before [y]

[Damien Hall]

Another forward from another (Philadelphia-based) list.  As usual, if anyone can
shed any light on the question, please reply to this list *and* to the original
questioner!

Many thanks -

Damien Hall
University of Pennsylvania

==============================

Has anyone taken note of a tendency in (American?) English to delete l's if
followed by a high front glide, i.e. [y]. I have observed this very often in
the following items:  (I'll use [@] for schwa).

        billion                [bIy at n]
        million         [mIy@]
        volume                 [va:yum]
        William                [wIy at m]
        civilian        [sIvI:y at n]
        (I'm a) tell ya        [tE:y@]

When I hear stock market reports from New York, I hear "on a volume of 10
million shares" pronounced [va:yum ... mIy at n] so this seems to be a New
York thing, not just a Philadelphia thing.

I don't hear it in "Willy" i.e. the conditioning factor seems to be not a
high front vowel, but rather a glide: [y], and the stress seems to be on
the vowel preceding the deleted lateral; (I can't think of a
counterexample with stress on the next syllable, but maybe there are
some.)

There are probably other examples, but these are the main ones.

My question is, has anyone noticed this, and/or written about it? (And if
not, why not? :-) )

Thanks,

Hal Schiffman
haroldfs at ccat.sas.upenn.edu

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