Lallation
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The incorrect pronunciation of the letter "r" so that it sounds like an "l" (or "w"). countable, uncountable
"She spoke Aramaic with a lazy lallation, affected by many because it was the natural speech of a class."
- 2 gibberish resembling the sounds of a baby wordnet
- 3 Baby-talk or gibberish. countable, uncountable
"1648, Robert Baron, Erotopaignion, Or the Cyprian Academy, London: J. Hardesty et al., “To the Ladies and Gentlewoemen of England,” When you talke with your children you expect from them no congruence or quaint language, yet you are often pleased to heare them prattle, & are delighted with their lisping Ideoms. This makes me hope that you will dispence with the Lallation & Low dialect of this babe, whose tone is rude, yet his meaning is plaine dealing, which according to the proverbe is a jewell, and consequently most fit for Ladies."
- 4 defective articulation of the /l/ phoneme or the phoneme /r/ is pronounced as /l/ wordnet
Example
More examples"She spoke Aramaic with a lazy lallation, affected by many because it was the natural speech of a class."
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.