Lallation

A Lallation (also called cambia-letras or troca-letra, "letter changer", in Latin American countries) is an imperfect enunciation of the letter "L", in which it sounds like "R", as frequently found in infantile speech.

The speech pattern has been particularly associated with the use of the Portuguese, Spanish and English languages by Chinese and Japanese people. The use of lallation has thus been a common feature of Western stereotypes of East Asian people.

References in pop culture

• On South Park, the City Wok guy is an example of the racial stereotype of lallation, as is Kim Jong Il in Team America: World Police.
• On Drawn Together, Ling-Ling speaks in his own language which includes lallation, exampled by an eye exam for a driving test containing all R's.

See Also

• Engrish
• Japanese speakers learning r and l