[QUOTE=Greg Charles]
We’ve established that Japanese aren’t really switching Ls and Rs, just blurring the two sounds so that it sounds like switching. However, in the rural areas of Northern Vietnam, they really do switch two consonants: Ls and Ns. It does seem strange to me that they can pronounce both sounds, but reverse them. Are there any other examples of this through the world? Has anybody figured out what causes it?
[/QUOTE]
Northern Vietnam’s proximity to China results in people speaking Vietnamese “with a Chinese accent”.
[BEGIN parenthetical comments]
I’m using quote marks because my above comment is meant to be taken lightly – and I can’t find the exact words to express what I mean. I can only offer the following random observations:
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Vietnamese and Chinese share linguistic characteristics
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Many Vietnamese are descendents of Chinese immgrants, so it’s difficult to draw the line on what an “authentic” Vietnamese accent should be
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Although the national language of Vietnam is Vietnamese (insert obligatory “no duh” here), the government prefers people to speak the North Vietnamese dialect (it’s what you hear if you learn Vietnamese overseas from language kits). It’s similar to the way the Chinese government prefers people to speak Mandarin as it is spoken in Beijing. Since my parents were Ho Chi Minh City (nee Saigon), I speak with a Southern Vietnamese accent; I sometimes find the North Vietnamese dialect a little grating. To use an imperfect analogy, think of how speakers of Cockney or Estuary English think of Received Pronunciation (RP can sound pompous sometimes).
[/END parenthetical comments]
Cantonese speakers will often swap “N” and “L” sounds for the word “you” (“neih” or “leih”).
Now that I thinking about it, even Southern Vietnamese speakers will swap N and L sounds for the word “five” depending upon context. For instance:
“Five” - pronounced “nam”
“Twenty-five” - pronounced “hai muoi lam” (although it’s still written as “nam”)
“Five hundred five” - pronounced “nam tram le nam”
“Five hundred fifty-five” prnounced “nam tram nam muoi lam”
My take on this? (I have no cite.) “Nam” sounds like the word for “year”. To avoid confusion:
“Hai muoi lam” - “twenty-five”
“Hai muoi nam” - “twenty years”
Another personal conjecture: I find pronouncing Ls in the middle of words and phrases easier than Ns. Perhaps words beginning with N became mispronounced with L sounds, which later became accepted.
By the way, I find the Japanese “R” sound very trying. It sounds like an “L”, trilled “R” (think Spanish), or “D” depending upon the word and/or who is speaking it. One thing that teachers have stressed though, is that it never sounds like an American “R”.
Sometimes I stumble on pronouncing “arigatou” (Thank you) and, to avoid sounding like a gaijin, end up saying “Oukii ni!” (Thank You in Kansai dialect, which has a stereotypical reputation for being spoken by “hick” farmers). Of course, now I sound like a retarded gaijin, since I don’t look like I’m from Osaka at all. 
Disclaimer: These are the rantings of a tongue-in-cheek non-linguist. I welcome corrections.
