postvocalic /l/

[Robin Hamilton]

Also, may I lodge a mild protest with regard to the barely-concealed
linguistic chauvanism involved in complaints against the dropping of the
post-vocalic "l", since this has been a standard part of Scottish vernacular
rural speech since at least the eighteenth century, ever since Robert Burns
(of sainted memory) ca'd the yows tae the knowes.

                    Up gainst the wa', jimminy cricket.

(We can't even *help saying it -- it was a systemic sound change, but.)

The Wee M'Greegor

----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul Johnston" <paul.johnston at WMICH.EDU>

quoting:

>> Poster:       Tom Zurinskas <truespel at HOTMAIL.COM>

>> If the fear is irrational, why do we have a clear example that "awe-
>> dropping" leads to miscommunication?  Apparantly when the "l" was
>> not heard for the word "brawl" and it was pronounced "braal", it
>> was taken to be "bra".  So in a workplace where "off" and "on" are
>> spoken frequently, it should be obvious that there is an increasing
>> danger of miscommunication if "off" is pronounced with the "ah"
>> phoneme.

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