Most (but not all) roots which contain an /l/ between /a/’s and /u/’s compete with roots which lack /l/. The forms without /l/ are used generally in the Northeastern portion of the Cebuano area: all areas east of Cebu (Bohol, Masbate, Leyte and islands in between) and on the northern half of Cebu. In the Southwestern areas (Negros, southern half of Cebu and most of Mindanao, the /l/ forms predominate.
Between like vowels /l/ is dropped and the vowel is usually lengthened: kalabaw or kábaw ‘water buffalo’; balay or báy ‘house’; tutulu or tutú ‘three’. In closed syllables or in the case of /l/ beginning the antepenult, no compensatory lengthening takes place: kalatkat or katkat ‘climb’; kalamunggay or kamunggay ‘k.o. tree’.
Between /a/ and /u/ or /u/ and /a/, /l/ becomes /w/: lalum or lawum ‘deep’; sulab or suwab ‘blade’. The sequence /alu/ in the antepenult and penult or earlier in the root becomes /u/ in Cebu and northern Leyte but /awu/ in Bohol and southern Leyte: dalunggan or dunggan or dawunggan ‘ear’.
This alternation is for the most part confined to the root.[19] Otherwise, it is so regular that only the forms containing /l/ are listed, and the presumption is made that the /l/ may be dropped unless a note is made to the contrary.[20]
5.212 Post-consonantal /l/
There is a tendency to drop post-consonantal /l/ usually (but not always) with compensatory lengthening of the vowel of the penult: kinahanglan or kinahángan ‘need’; aplud or apud ‘astringent in taste’; danglug or dángug or dangug ‘slippery’. The /l/-less forms are most common in the areas which drop intervocalic /l/. The dropping of post-consonantal /l/ is by no means as widespread as dropping of intervocalic /l/, and alternative forms are listed.
5.213 Final /l/
In Bohol and southern Leyte there is a tendency for /al/ at the end of a word to become /aw/ and /ul/ to become /u/: bagal or bagaw ‘shell’. In this case alternative forms are listed.
5.214 Change of /l/ to /y/
Historically, intervocalic /l/ in isolated dialects became /y/. Forms with /y/ for /l/ have spread throughout the Cebuano-speaking area, and some are in competition with /l/-retaining forms: tingáli or tingáyi ‘perhaps’; kalugpus or kayugpus (also kugpus—by the rule of 5.211) ‘fold the arms’. In this case, competing forms are listed with cross reference.