What is "lambdacism"

Lambdacism \Lamb"da*cism\, n. [L. lambdacismus, Gr. ?, fr. la`mbda the letter lambda ([Lambda]).]

1. A fault in speaking or in composition, which consists in too frequent use of the letter l, or in doubling it erroneously.

2. A defect in pronunciation of the letter l when doubled, which consists in giving it a sound as if followed by y, similar to that of the letters lli in billion.

3. The use of the sound of l for that of r in pronunciation; lallation; as, Amelican for American.

n. (label en linguistics) A pronunciation shift whereby /l/ or other closely-related phonemes are spoken instead of other sounds (typically /r/).

n. speech defect involving excessive use or unusual pronunciation of the phoneme `l'

Lambdacism (from the Greek letter lambda) is a medical condition or speech impediment related to the pronunciation of / l/ or related phonemes.

A common form of lambdacism is lallation, the substitution of / l/ for / ɹ/ in pronunciation. It is a common feature of Japanese and Korean pronunciation of English; it occurs to a lesser extent in Mandarin Chinese and other languages. Substitution of /l/ for /n/ at the beginning of a word or syllable (or the reverse at the end) is also a feature in certain East Asian languages, such as Cantonese and Thai.