What happened to the L in salmon?

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#177449 - 06/16/08 10:19 AM What happened to the L in salmon?
Issigri stranger Registered: 06/16/08 Posts: 1	After reading the sherbert article on MSN I was wondering if anyone could explain the pronunciation of salmon. I'm from the south and like most Southerners I pronounce the L. Most of the time you can simply go by how a similar word is promounced. Example aunt, ant/aunt?, it's aunt obviously in spite of most southerners saying "ant". Unless you're from Boston you're going to pronounce the L in falcon. So what happened to pronouncing the L in salmon?
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#177462 - 06/16/08 11:51 AM Re: What happened to the L in salmon? [Re: Issigri]
twosleepy old hand Registered: 02/28/08 Posts: 876 Loc: western NY	Hmmm. Maybe there's a room where the silent letters go, next to the room with the letters that should be silent but get pronounced, are having a party. It is so ironic that people who are trying to sound well-educated will carefully pronounce "often" as off-ten when the "t" is actually silent; it rhymes with "soften" (which no one would pronounce soff-ten; at least I've never heard it!) So there you go; no answers, just more questions... :0)
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#177463 - 06/16/08 12:04 PM Re: What happened to the L in salmon? [Re: Issigri]
zmjezhd Carpal Tunnel Registered: 08/13/05 Posts: 3271 Loc: R'lyeh	Salmon is one of those words, like perfect, where an etymological spelling has confused folks (no l there either). When it was borrowed into Middle English via Norman it was spelled and pronounced without the l: samoun. Later, people who knew some Latin realized that there should be an l in it (i.e., s;a,o, salmonis), and after that it's a hope, skip, and a jump to pronouncing the l. Likewise, perfect came into English as parfit, but after some etymologizing spellifiers got a hold of that one, we ended up, today, spelling and saying perfect. The sound of an l after a vowel and before another consonant is pronounced with secondary articulation (velarized), the so-called dark l (link). _________________________ Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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#177464 - 06/16/08 12:17 PM Re: What happened to the L in salmon? [Re: zmjezhd]
twosleepy old hand Registered: 02/28/08 Posts: 876 Loc: western NY	Interesting to note that in "salmonella" the "l" is always pronounced. Go figure...
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#177468 - 06/16/08 12:33 PM Re: What happened to the L in salmon? [Re: twosleepy]
Hydra addict Registered: 08/02/06 Posts: 631	Speaking of such stuff, how many of you pronounce the r in iron?
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#177470 - 06/16/08 12:47 PM Re: What happened to the L in salmon? [Re: Hydra]
zmjezhd Carpal Tunnel Registered: 08/13/05 Posts: 3271 Loc: R'lyeh	Speaking of such stuff, how many of you pronounce the r in iron? Depends on what you mean by r. I pronounce iron as /ʔʌɪjɚn/ in casual speech or /ʔaɪjɚn/ in more formal speech. (This chart may help link.) _________________________ Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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#177471 - 06/16/08 12:47 PM Re: What happened to the L in salmon? [Re: Hydra]
Buffalo Shrdlu Carpal Tunnel Registered: 06/24/02 Posts: 7186 Loc: Vermont	Originally Posted By: Hydra Speaking of such stuff, how many of you pronounce the r in iron? I don't earn my keep like Ron Obvious. _________________________ formerly known as etaoin...
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#177477 - 06/16/08 01:00 PM Re: What happened to the L in salmon? [Re: Buffalo Shrdlu]
Hydra addict Registered: 08/02/06 Posts: 631	^ I knew that was coming! * light applause *
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#177478 - 06/16/08 01:04 PM Re: What happened to the L in salmon? [Re: Hydra]
Hydra addict Registered: 08/02/06 Posts: 631	Where I hail from, iron sounds like ion. Hence, for a long time I misheard Leonard Cohen singing, "O mask of Aaron, I was there for you," and tried like a fool to chase up the obscure reference to this Aaron fellow and his mask.
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#177486 - 06/16/08 03:44 PM Re: What happened to the L in salmon? [Re: zmjezhd]
Myridon addict Registered: 10/24/05 Posts: 557 Loc: Dallas, TX	Originally Posted By: zmjezhd I pronounce [i]iron as /ʔʌɪjɚn/ in casual speech ... (This chart may help link.) No, doesn't help... using the chart, I get something like uhahihyan - I think I'd rather go back to the dancing architecture. 'Round these parts, it's pernounced eye urn. Edited by Myridon (06/16/08 03:45 PM)
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