Date: Thu, 2 Nov 1995 10:49:01 -0500

From: Robert Kelly kelly[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]BARD.EDU

Subject: Re: fillim



One thing at stake might be the fact that in Irish (Gaelic), an

epenthetic schwa is natural between l and m, so ellum and fillum are

natural Irishisms in English. Considering the density of Irish

population in New York City during the years the so-called New York

speech arose, and many groups came to speak it, it's not surprising that

other ethnic speakers from NY would walk under ellum trees --- if there

were any left to walk under.



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Robert Kelly

Division of Literature and Languages, Bard College

Annandale-on-Hudson NY 12504

Voice Mail: 914-758-7600 Box 7205

kelly[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]bard.edu



On Wed, 1 Nov 1995, SETH SKLAREY wrote:



I have two acquaintances who pronounce film with two syllables as

fillim or fillum. One blames his Irish roots and the other is

from New York and has a Jewish background. Does anyone have an

explanation as to a causal connection for either of these?



Seth Sklarey







David Rojas writes:

----------------------------Original message----------------------------

After the /I/ in 'milk', 'silk', and 'film', I do pronounce the /l/ before the

final consonant; however, in /a/ words such as 'balm', 'calm', 'balk', 'talk',

'walk', etc, I think I never pronounce the /l/ before the final consonant.

I would like to get some feedback on the distribution of this pronunciation

"rule" that I seem to express. D M Rojas (drojas1[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ua1vm.ua.edu)

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