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.



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

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)

> >-------------------------------------------------

> >Yes, that's consistent with a number of us who report operating with* a

> >regular distinction between non-back vowels, after which the L is pronounced

> >([I] as in milk and film, [E] as in elm, [AE] as in talc (= talcum) and calc

> >(= calculus), and schwa as in hulk and sulk) and (some) back vowels, after

> >which it isn't (open o as in balk and talk, [a] as in balm and calm). For me,

> >as mentioned, [o] sometimes wipes out the following L (as in the 'folk' words

> >and 'yolk') and sometimes doesn't (Polk, Volks(wagen), Tolk ['Tolkien groupie']

> >and so on).

> >

> >Larry

> >

> >*at least in my case; I probably shouldn't generalize

> >

> >

>