Labdacism : A vitium ‘from the Provinces’ ?

The so-called labdacismus is described by Latin grammarians as a vice concerning the pronunciation of the [l] sound. The existence of such a long-established tradition implies, in my view, that there must have been in ancient grammatical doctrine a welldeveloped description of the lateral sound with its phonetic realizations (cf. the famous passage of Plinius Dub. Serm. fr. 8 Della Casa transmitted by Priscian, gl 2, 29, 8-12 Keil). Of particular interest is the very difficult testimony of Pompeius (gl 5, 286,34-287, 6 Keil = 14, 13-15, 8 Zago), who explicitly ascribes a defective pronunciation of [l] to Afri, describing the Romans as having the standard pronunciation ; the same geographical connotation for the vice is stressed also by Isidorus and Julian of Toledo as well as the later Sedulius Scotus. A very interesting comparison can be made with a passage of Consentius, de barb. 16, 5-21 Niedermann, a writer probably originating from Gaul, who contrasts Greek and Roman pronunciations of the liquid consonant.