Why do some people with speech impediments pronounce the letter 'R' as an 'L'?

lanfranco

People have been hesitant to answer this question, probably out of fear of giving offense. However, madly-intrepid creature that I am, and given the currency of the Beijing Olympics, I suspect that you are referring not to speech impediments, but rather to certain pronunciations in Asian languages. Not every language contains every sound heard in western languages. "L" and "R" are problems in some Asian languages. Please see the site below: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engrish Aug 17 08, 5:02 PM

Baloo55th

An equivalent problem for native English speakers is the difference between 'q' and 'g' in Arabic. We hear both as 'g', while to a native Arabic speaker, they're two different sounds. As an example, look at the dirrerent spellings used in the UK and the USA for the leader of Libya. The UK uses 'G', the USA uses 'Q'. As to speech 'impediments', a commoner one in English is 'r' and 'w', as exemplified by Jonathan Woss. I was once very tempted by something in a tool shop - 'eyeret priers' was very clearly printed on the package. In stereotypical depictions of Chinese people speaking English, 'r' is changed to 'l' 'velly good!' but there is an 'r' sound (not the same as English 'r') in Chinese. In pinyin, it's spelled 'r', in the old (and weird) Wade-Giles system it was 'j'. Japanese, however, has one sound that includes (for them) our 'l' and 'r'. This list of names jumps from Kyou to Mai. Their 'l/r' sound must be closer to our 'r'. http://www.behindthename.com/nmc/jap.php Aug 17 08, 5:28 PM