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Almost two weeks ago, I posted a query about /l/-palatalisation in complex 
onsets, such as can be found in various dialects of Romance. I asked 
whether anyone knew of any phonetic studies on this subject or whether 
anyone was aware of this phenomenon in non-Romance languages. 
 
I would like to thank the following people (in alphabetical order) for 
their responses: 
Lieselotte Anderwald, Paul Fallon, Damien Hall, Eric Holt, Mark Jones, 
Warren Maguire, Martin Mangei, Viola Miglio, Christopher Miller, Marc 
Picard, Nathan Sanders, Stephan Schmid, Richard Steiner 
 
1) Phonetic studies on /l/-palatalisation in complex onsets 
 
Viola Miglio and Eric Holt pointed me to chapter 4 of Eric Holt's PhD 
thesis (''The Role of the Listener in the Historical Phonology of Spanish 
and Portuguese: An Optimality-Theoretic Account.'', 1997, Rutgers 
Optimality Archive, ROA-278), which offers a summary of (non-experimental) 
phonetic explanations of this phenomenon, in addition to the OT approach 
taken in this thesis. 
 
Paul Fallon sent the following reference: Otto von Essen, 1964. An 
acoustic explanation of the sound shift [ł] > [u] and [l] > [i]. In David 
Abercrombie, D.B. Fry, P.A.D. MacCarthy, N.C. Scott, and J.L.M. Trim (eds), 
In Honour of Daniel Jones. London: Longmans; 53-58. Von Essen claims, on 
the basis of comparisons of the spectrograms of [l] (clear [l]) and [i], 
that there are strong resemblances between their formant structures. His 
spectrograms (von Essen 1964: 56, fig.1), however, do not strongly support 
(t)his conclusion. 
 
Nevertheless, it seems that, so far, the only available experimental 
phonetic study on /l/-palatalisation remains von Essen 1964. If someone 
could prove me wrong on this point, I'd be delighted to post an addendum to 
this summary. 
 
2) /l/-palatalisation and related phenomena in other languages 
 
Marc Picard and Christopher Miller referred me to Proto-Algonquian /l/ 
which palatalised to /j/ in all environments in Plains Cree and James Bay Cree. 
 
Christopher Miller and Nathan Sanders pointed me to the Slavic languages, 
to a process whereby Proto-Slavic /pj/ had an /l/ epenthesised (/plj/), 
with further developments in the different Slavic languages. Christopher 
Miller reported this phenomenon also for /bl/ and /vl/ in the South Slavic 
languages. 
 
This phenomenon is interesting insofar as in the Romance languages, /pl, 
bl, fl/ palatalise later and in a smaller geographical area than /kl, gl/. 
 
3) hypotheses 
 
Mark Jones suggested that /l/-palatalisation passed through a stage 
involving a voiceless lateral fricative, which would arise from an 
increased VOT after the voiceless plosive (or from fricativisation from a 
preceding voiceless fricative), and then be reinterpreted by listeners as a 
devoiced /ʎ/ or /j/. Richard Steiner cited indeed a case from a Yiddish 
variety where /klajn/ was realised [kɬʲajn]. However, as the phenomenon in 
Romance involves palatalisation of voiced and voiceless obstruents alike, 
this 'aspiration' of /l/ might not be the origin of the palatalised /l/ in 
the Romance dialects. 
 
Thanks again for all the suggestions and reflections on /l/-palatalisation 
in complex onsets. As several people wrote, this phenomenon has not yet 
received the attention it deserves from phonetics. I'll send the results of 
my study to those of you who requested it.