lallation

Noun

lallation (countable and uncountable, plural lallations)

1. The incorrect pronunciation of the letter "r" so that it sounds like an "l" (or "w").
   • She spoke Aramaic with a lazy lallation, affected by many because it was the natural speech of a class.1918, Earl Williams, chapter 19, in The Court of Belshazzar: A Romance of the Great Captivity, Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, page 199
   • “Everybody wovs you,” Mary Madelyn said to Melchior.
     Whenever she pronounced an el it became doubleu. […] Except for her partial lallation she spoke well […]1982, Bernard Malamud, “The Schooltree”, in God’s Grace
2. Baby-talk or gibberish.
   • 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...1648, Robert Baron, Erotopaignion, Or the Cyprian Academy, London: J. Hardesty et al., “To the Ladies and Gentlewoemen of England,”
   • The auto-imitation in lallation, a form of spontaneous talking, precedes the imitation of strange words and sounds. […] in lallation the infant follows his own inclination, while in imitating the sound heard from others he will have to accommodate himself to a strange perception.1914, Max Nadoleczny, “Disorders of Speech and Phonation in Childhood”, in Diseases of the Eye and Disorders of Speech in Childhood, Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, page 362