Don't touch my phonemes

[Eduard Selleslagh]

[snip]
>Phonetically intriguing, however, is the southeast of England, in which
>syllable-final /l/ is entirely delateralized and realized as something
>resembling [o].  So, 'field' is [fiod], 'milk' is [mIok], 'hill' is [hIo],
>and 'feel' is [fio].  However, 'feeling' is still [filIN], with a clear [l],
>and so I suppose we must still analyze this [o] as an allophone of /l/.

>Larry Trask

[Ed]
As a non-specialist, I thought this is a pretty general phenomenon in IE
languages, if you allow some variation (syllable-final dark l becoming -o,
u, or -w):
French: Gaule [go:-l@] from Lat. Gal-lia, and many other words and
formations (e.g. cheval/chevaux [-vo:] instead of chevals).
Brazilian Portuguese: Canaval [karnava-u or -w]
Polish and some other Slavic lgs. : l > barred l [w] (cf. Serbo-Croat
Sloboda , Czech svoboda)
Spanish: Hoz from Lat. falc-em (via Foz or Halcem?)
Dutch: Koud (Eng. cold, Ger. kalt) and many other words and names (e.g.
Boudewijn --  Baldwin)
etc.

The only difference with the 'SE English phenomenon' is that these
languages, except Br. Port. (even though very acceptable to most, albeit
regionally),  have 'legalized' it.
I must say though, that I have often observed similar pronunciations (like
in 'solder') in New England USA.

Ed. Selleslagh