Homework - Words with a silent L

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Last week 8 year old dd had to write a list of words with a silent k. I thought that was ok homework as dd was able to use her dictionary to write the list - given all the words start with a k.

This week it's the silent L - and actually, it's not that straightforward.... And I say that as a highly educated professional who writes every day!

We looked on the internet and there are some words which are listed as having a silent l by some sources, where the l is now actually pronounced by some people - balm, palm, calm, almond....

Anyway, dd and I had an interesting discussion about this, but I don't think the teacher really thought this out!

I would say it with an "au" sound as in au-stralia. So w-au-kie t-au-kie.

I'm from the east coast of Scotland too p

www.forvo.com/word/walk/

Lots of different ways here - I'm closest to the second one on that link.

Well! I'm from the east coast of Scotland too and don't pronounce the l in chalk and talk - how bonkers! Have never heard anyone pronouncing them with the l. Chok and tok.

So, chicken, you say them chola and tolk? Or what?

Thank god tiggy I was feeling a bit of an oddball. I lived in London for ten years-maybe London is to blame. Although am outside London now in the south east and fairly certain all my friends speak similarly.

I'll check tomorrow

My dh says al-mond. I say ah-mond.

Good work, tiggy. Whichever way you pronounce almond you have to say the l don't you? Either 'owl-mond' or 'all-mond'?

DH says that it isn't that Londoners actually say the L in those words, but that they don't say the L in any words, and so the sound they utter is the same, which means they cannot differentiate between the l in walk and the l in ball.

He says the tip of your tongue has to touch the top of your mouth which doesn't happen in London dialect.

He's an engineer so no idea why he decided to have such insight.

Yes I get the 'ah-mond' actually MrsB. DH is looking at my whispering.

Llama?! You surely only pronounce one of them!

Llama is not an English phonic word. The double 'll' is pronounced 'y' so you say 'yah-ma'.

They do if they are a Spanish speaker.

Just to be totally unhelpful it's not actually a silent letter. Kn is just a grapheme choice for the phoneme 'n' The same with l ... Walk for example is w/al/k

Sorry!!!

A London accent doesn't drop 'l' sounds though, it's a different sound (l-vocalisation, which I'll confess I had to look up, but only to remind myself what it's called ). So if you say 'wall, to sound a bit like 'waw' and 'walk' a bit like 'wawk' you'll interpret it as pronouncing the 'l'. Meanwhile someone without that feature in that accent won't expect to hear an 'l' and will interpret the sound as something different.

Almond = ol-mond for me.

Mind completely blown by proper Spanish llama pronunciation.

I think I have proved my point. (Takes a bow.)

I just got caught mouthing 'almond' too.

Ahh-mund btw

I think that is wha DH was saying Dontcallme. that the London L is different and occurs the same way in wall as in walk iyswim. So it is present in both.

Just tried pronouncing llama if it were a Welsh word...
What will be interesting is to see whether there are "right" or "wrong" answers according to the teacher to help them learn to spell or if the purpose is something more subtle like helping children understand that words can be pronounced differently?

If it's the former, right/wrong, then I agree OP that this kind of task is annoying because it's v hard to find out correct answers.

What a fascinating thread!! It had never occurred to me that people might pronounce the 'l' in any of these words, except perhaps almond - though I say ah-mond.

I see what people mean re the London 'l', and can see how that might get pronounced in "talk", "walk" etc, even if I wouldn't hear it as such. However, I'm genuinely bemused about "balm"! I have lived in various locations around the UK, and I can't imagine how else you might pronounce it other than "baam"!

PS from Sussex born and bred and I remember my brother saying Al-Mond and me saying foalk (folk) as children and being told by our parents (greater London) it was Ahh-Mond and foke.

If you imagine the way a Londonernwould pronounce "milk" there is no vocalist ion of the 'l' sound you hear in lost or lamb or like. It's more of a w sound. So I think that's how the Londoners also pronounce the l in walk, talk etc. it would not sound like wallk but more like wawk.

No, I definitely pronounce the 'l' as 'l', not 'w'.