It's hard to say what's a reinstatement, what's a broadening of a slenderized sound, and what's held on to. A lot of silent letters aren't, for instance -- people say that Bostonians drop our r's in certain words, but we don't: rather, they're slenderized and slipped into semivowel diphthongs. Similarly, there are a lot of silent letters at the end of French words that I can hear...
So, in my mind, those l's were never lost in British English -- they were just stuck onto the vowels.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-08-27 11:48 pm (UTC)So, in my mind, those l's were never lost in British English -- they were just stuck onto the vowels.