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!

And then you have to think about dark L and light L...

L is a weird letter in English.

Mind completely blown by proper Spanish llama pronunciation.

Spanish pronounciation is easy, it's a more phonic language than English. The biggest variation is between South America and Spain for the letter 'z' which is a 'th' sound in classic Spanish so chorizo is chori-tho but the South American is a lazy 's' sound so becomes chori-so. There's a great urban myth that says the Spanish pronounciation is because they had a King with a lisp so everyone in Spain started talking with a lisp.

will stop muttering and go back to reading the thread now!

L is a weird letter in English.
It is indeed, especially after a: alphabet - already, almost - almond, call - shall ...

In spelling, al and all are both quite often alternatives for aul or awl:
maul, haul - crawl, shawl - tall, wall - almost, also - halt, salt ...

The spelling represents different sounds in English
In chalk, talk, walk etc it is the sound /or/ in almond' psalm, qualm etc it is the sound /at

is the spelling for /oo/ in would, should, could

Really poorly thought out homework

I get the London thing now, having said wall and walk in my head in a London accent :)

Even in Spain it gets a bit regional. While double L is taught as y, my teacher was from Andalucia and although she taught us the correct Castilian "y" she would actually say "zh" when in rapid conversation but couldn't hear herself saying it as it was an accent thing. When we then copied her would say to us "why are you saying zh? It's y".

Am I strange then? I'm from Hampshire. I say:
Al-mond
Talk/walk/balk with l-k not ork
Mil-k
Bal-m

I agree that folk, yolk, would, calf, half, could are all silent l.

You may hear it clearer as wauk, tauk, chauk when I say it but as I am saying the words walk, talk and chalk the shape of my lips, movement of my mouth and tongue are all forming the "l" sound/movement so although you could say it's silent but technically it isn't.

I say the l sounds in lots of those words.
I think it's a non-useful homework because if they were teaching using phonics there shouldn't really be 'silent' letters, just groups of letters that make a particular sound - that sound obviously from this thread, depending on your accent.

I've never heard anyone pronounce talk in the same way as talc pity we don't have sound on MN

Cocktailqueen I say them the same way as BowlersArm. Ch-au-lk. The L is very quiet, but the tip of my tongue definitely goes up to the roof of my mouth.

Am quite willing to admit that I moved away from Edinburgh years ago, so my accent is pretty corrupt. Perhaps I need to phone mum tonight and make her say llama .

In Polish they have two letter "L"s, one that is pronounced the regular way, as in "like" and the second (which is written with a line through it), which is pronounced as "w". So like eg Londoners might pronounce walk as "wawk" or well as "wew". Perhaps we should adopt this letter into our language?

I suppose it's most similar to ch-all-k, w-all-k, m-ill-k.

Balm and almond are more like b-arl-m and aal-mond.

Just as I would say 'grass' as 'gr-ars' it's a long 'a' sound just as I'd use a long 'l' sound.

Christmas. There's no l in it

I pronounce the L in talk, chalk, almond, balm, palm, calm and half.

I don't pronounce it in yolk, folk, Colonel, salmon, could, should or would.

I'm in London but I don't drop my Ls in general. I have my tongue on the roof of my mouth and everything...

Mrz: is the spelling for /oo/ in would, should, could.

Yes, but also for /ole/ in 'mould' and 'shoulder'.

akett01
I've never ever heard anyone pronounce 'walk' and 'talk' as 'waulk' and 'taulk'. If u really sound the l, then u are unusual.

But perhaps u just think that u do, because of the spelling?

I definitely sound them. Not as clearly as in milk or silk, but there's a touch of an L sound. It's quite possible that I drop them when I'm talking quickly, but if I'm talking slowly and carefully there's an L in there.

masha - yes, but isn't it possible you just can't hear it?

In some languages, people can't distinguish between sounds we hear as two distinct sounds (and AFAIK the average English person struggles to hear, for example, tones in Chinese and vowels in Russian). If you've never been used to listening for the sound (and why would you?) you might not notice it's there. But someone who has that accent may be distinguishing between that sound, and one that is very close to it.

So are you going to print this tread off and stick it in her homework book, OP?

No masha in mould & shoulder is the spelling for ... /l/

has anyone else, after reading the Llama/yah-ma and Lloyds examples found themselves mutter Yoy-yds figuring out how it would sound with a spanish twist?

Yes. Also considering seeing how long I can get away with pronouncing it as yoy-yds for before someone plucks up the courage to point out that I'm pronouncing it incorrectly.

Masha, it isn't unusual to sound the l if you're from my part of the country.

also, 'u' is spelled 'you'. HTH.

This has all gone too intellectual for me now I'm glad to see that some others say almond like I do (like psalm) I was beginning to think I made it up!