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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.
Entire Thread Subject Posted By Posted What happened to the L in salmon? Issigri 06/16/08 02:19 PM Re: What happened to the L in salmon? twosleepy 06/16/08 03:51 PM Re: What happened to the L in salmon? zmjezhd 06/16/08 04:04 PM Re: What happened to the L in salmon? twosleepy 06/16/08 04:17 PM Re: What happened to the L in salmon? Hydra 06/16/08 04:33 PM Re: What happened to the L in salmon? zmjezhd 06/16/08 04:47 PM Re: What happened to the L in salmon? Myridon 06/16/08 07:44 PM Re: two air is humane zmjezhd 06/16/08 08:13 PM Re: two air is humane twosleepy 06/16/08 09:11 PM Re: two air is humane The Pook 06/17/08 12:08 AM Re: What happened to the L in salmon? Buffalo Shrdlu 06/16/08 04:47 PM Re: What happened to the L in salmon? Hydra 06/16/08 05:00 PM Re: What happened to the L in salmon? Hydra 06/16/08 05:04 PM Re: What happened to the L in salmon? The Pook 06/16/08 11:40 PM
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