'L' Deletion

Example of linguistic variation:

•  In spoken French, some speakers 'delete' or leave out 'l' sounds in certain places
• e.g. "Il y a" vs "y a" (often in the case of an impersonal 'il')
• e.g. il va [iva]/ils vont [ivɔ̃]/elle voit [evwɔ]/elles regardent [erəgard]
• /l/ in subject pronouns and in 'word final' positions often deleted
• Content words:
• Possible, Exemple (word final)
• Escalier, Millieu (word median)
• La/Le/Les - word initial position - very unusual for the /l/ deletion to occur here but it does occasionally 
• Lui (e.g. 'je lui parle' [ʒi]0

Historical examples of /l/ deletion:

•  Alterum (Latin) - autre
• Altum - haut
• Alba - aube 
• Bellus - beau (exception - belle)
• Falsus - faux

Grammaticalisation: 

• à + le = au (Old French 'als')
• de + les = des (Old French 'dels')
• jes/quis (Old French) - je les/qui les (Modern French)

Synchronic Perspectives:  

• Ashby - 1988 - Tours
• Armstrong - 1994 - Lorraine Dieuze (metropolitan France study)
• Sankoff & Cedergren - 1976 - Montreal 
• Poplak & Walker - 1986 - Ottawa Hull
• Note: Canadian studies older, Metropole studies more recent
• Studies based on real speech recordings 

Study Results:

•  Geographic:
• /l/ deletion is more advanced in Canada than in Metropolitan France 
• The Metropole is lagging behind in terms of language change
• Metropolitan studies are more recent than the Canadian studies, emphasising the lag
• While the difference is not particularly significant in the extremely frequent contexts (eg il) the gulf becomes greater across the infrequent contexts
• e.g. object /l/ deletion is relatively common in Canada but very uncommon in Metropolitan France 
• Definite article /l/ deletion occurs infrequently in Canada but it has not yet spread to the Metropole
• Linguistic:
•  Lexification of 'il' - the rate of deletion 'il' (personal and impersonal) is reaching 100% (in Canada)  
• therefore a new word has been formed ergo linguistic change has occurred
• The effect which word type has on the frequency of /l/ deletion 
• Pronouns evidence /l/ deletion more commonly than articles
• Within the pronoun category, subjects (il/s, elle/s) demonstrate a greater frequency of /l/ deletion than objects (lui, les, la, le, leur, l')
• Phonological context - deletion was affected by the vowel/consonant pattern
•  e.g. 'il voit' vs 'il entre' - speakers will attempt to preserve the CVCV pattern
• i.e. [ivwɔ] vs [ilɛ̃tr]
• Stylistic - deletion = non prestige 
•  Social Factors (not applicable in Canada - /l/ deletion is universal there irrespective of social factors - another sign of their more advanced stage of language change)
•  Age - always important marker of language change 
• Very high rate of deletion in younger age group, lower rate in older group 
• Armstrong's study of French teenagers showed that the deletion rate was at 100% in certain cases 
• Gender 
• Females delete less frequently than males  
• Males tend to lead the process of language change while women lag behind
• Class
• lower class delete more often than higher class

Conclusion:
Linguistic change is in process.