I have a friend who always pronounces the l's in walk and talk.
Is this regional? Is there anywhere that standardly pronounces the l?
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From personal experience, I have never heard anyone pronounce either of those l’s, apart from non-native speakers. Is your friend a native speaker?– Janus Bahs JacquetCommented Dec 23, 2013 at 12:23
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Just those words? What about, say, belt or milk? Personally I don't enunciate the /l/ in any of them (I just lengthen the vowel with a /w/), but I suspect that many of those that do aren't always consistent.– FumbleFingersCommented Dec 23, 2013 at 13:37
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4@FumbleFingers: walk, chalk, talk, baulk, caulk, stalk, and so forth. Most people in the U.S. pronounce the /l/ in belt and milk, some pronounce the /l/ in calm and palm, but very few if any pronounce the /l/ in words that rhyme with walk (actually, I just noticed that description's ambiguous ... I rhyme hawk with walk, and I don't think anybody pronounces an /l/ in that).– Peter ShorCommented Dec 23, 2013 at 17:05
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@Peter: I see. When I wrote aren't always consistent that's what I meant (some people enunciate the /l/ in some words, but not in others). But seeing your hawk/walk example made me realise that I personally am not even consistent with the same word. I'd never have an /l/ in hawk, obviously (it's too much trouble for my "lazy cottonmouth" in any word of this general type). But the sound I actually make before the final /k/ seems to vary across a continuum from /r/ to /w/.– FumbleFingersCommented Dec 23, 2013 at 17:45
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1I only very rarely hear someone pronounce "walk" as "wok", and it's usually a signal that they're from Philadelphia or thereabouts.– Hot LicksCommented Jan 22, 2016 at 22:16
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2 Answers
I can't speak for your one individual, but in general yes, it is regional. Some speakers of Southern American English will appear to pronounce the /l/ in the words "walk" and "talk". It has also been reported from speakers of African American Vernacular English, a related dialect.
SAE is spoken across the south-eastern quarter of the continental United States. AAVE is spoken in urban areas across the country, and is often found in popular media, particularly hip-hop, blues, and other American music.
I have lived in the Southern U.S. for most of my life, and I do pronounce the /l/ in words such as walk, talk, chalk, etc. I was astounded recently when, upon looking up a pronunciation guide for "walk" in a dictionary, I saw that no /l/ sound was indicated.
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Welcome, Maggie, to ELU. What you have said is certainly evidence that at least one other person than mentioned in the question pronounces 'l': yourself. You might notice that so far all the responses have been 'comments' rather than 'answers'. That is a better place for your helpful comment. To send an ANSWER, you need to have done some research into what counts as correct or incorrect pronunciation or whether there is such a thing as a 'local accent' as opposed to a 'correct accent' (as spoken inside the beltway) . You could add whether the 'l' in chalk is universal where you live.– TuffyCommented Oct 16, 2018 at 17:41
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@Tuffy unfortunately Maggie is new so can't leave comments I believe Commented Oct 17, 2018 at 0:28
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@Unrelated Oh. Thank you. I must go through the system again to understand it properly.– TuffyCommented Oct 17, 2018 at 8:10
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This is true for me too. I always at least try and pronounce the L. I understand that they tend to get lost or shortened when speaking fast, but it’s hard for me to accept that they’re meant to be silent. That just sounds like an effect of people speaking fast rather than a correct pronunciation. Commented Mar 22 at 12:30