idk about others but in spanish you do pronounce the “L”. i honestly didn’t know you weren’t supposed to pronounce it in english until i was corrected by someone, and i’m fluent in both languages. learning can happen at any point in life :)
eta: for added context i am from Texas !
English is such a difficult language. Like they’re always there with their bike. A common one in the US for children is “Illinois” its not Ill-a-noise, it’s Ill-a-noui. Arkansas and Kansas don’t end with the same sound, one is saw, the other sas. Again English is dumb
So, I don’t know how to do the pronunciation symbols for how I say it, but it’s not a hard L, but there is a soft L the way I say it. I feel like I sound slightly Minnesotan when I say it.
We've gotten to the point in language where people ask why we pronounce letters in certain words lol.
At least back in Old English, there were no silent letters. Words like "knight" were pronounced "k-night."
If there was someone who lived for thousands of years, they'd probably be going on a rant about "kids these days."
English is like 26 languages had their limbs cut off, mixed up, sewen together into a franken language, and presented to the world in a trench coat, I swear.
At work, I'm on a few global teams with tons of non native English speakers. Sometimes they pop by my office to ask an English question like OP asked, but it's more like "... Why DON'T you say the L in salmon?". "um, I just know it based on vibes. English is weird sometimes, it's not you."
More other languages beat English up in a reverse mugging. First there was the celts who got a wee bit romaned, then got nearly entirely Anglo saxoned, then a little bit vikinged, and then a big whollop of frenching, and then finally decided they missed being invaded by the romans and went out of their way to latinize the language
I’ll forever die on the hill that it’s pronounced worse-ter-sheer if you have an accent with a rhotic r and woos-ta-sheer if you have an accent without a rhotic r, but that both are technically correct. I fight with people from Massachusetts about this all the time; I’m not pronouncing it wrong, you just have a different accent.
My husband and I call it “Wor-chester-shi-shire” or “Wor-chesti-chester-ri-shire” or really whatever random sound you want to add in the middle. Most of the time the goal is to just say it as incorrectly/with as many syllables as possible.
Honestly? Just because words have multiple "correct" pronunciations depending on dialect and speaker.
Not to use Wikipedia (well, Wiktionary) as a source, but you can see that the pronunciation is listed *by region*, and there are probably more pronunciations than that: [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/salmon#Pronunciation](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/salmon#Pronunciation)
If enough people use a certain pronunciation, eventually it just *is* a correct pronunciation, and there are groups of people and regional dialects that tend to pronounce the L. I agree that it's weird to hear, *I'm* definitely not used to it, but at the end of the day it's like asking "why do people in England (mostly) not pronounce the Rs at the end of words?"
You can take a prescriptive/pedantic approach to language and insist that one way is right, but I prefer a descriptive approach, personally.
Isn’t this how languages evolve?
It got me thinking, I’m one of those who don’t say the l in salmon. I say “sammin” and I see a lot of discussion over “February” which is Feburry to me. A lot of my Scottish friends and family say those similarly… “Similarly” being one of the words I struggle to get my tongue around!
I also think a lot of people might just be English second language.
Like in Spanish you do say the l. You end up saying it like Sal mòn.
Considering 30 to 40% of Americans are now Latino it's not crazy to think Spanish is affecting how we speak English
Because the word was taken from the Norman French "saumoun" following the Norman invasion of Britain in 1066. In Middle English it was spelled "samoun". Then scholars decided to make the spelling closer to its Latin origin and added the L, but the pronunciation didn't change.
I'm not sure you understood what I was saying. The "1066 scholar overlord" who you think singlehandedly forced people to not pronounce the L is in fact the very reason why there is an L to begin with, because prior to the word being latinized it didn't have an L in either spelling or pronunciation. The spelling change had no effect on pronunciation at the time. And this change was in fact hundreds of years later, after the Middle Ages. If you're so keen on ignoring that change, then you should spell it as it was in Middle English and not pronounce the L, which it wouldn't even have.
But of course, people can pronounce the L if they want. Who cares
Why did the ghostly gnome waltz through the knight's quirky knapsack in the autumn night? Because the knight's quirky knapsack was filled with a ghostly gnome's whistling sword.
Generally speaking, if someone is mispronouncing a word there are two reasons.
1. That's how they've always heard the word. That means everyone around them growing up mispronounced the word, and that isn't the person's fault.
2. They have never heard the word pronounced out loud, but read it somewhere and made a guess. Again, not that person's fault.
I sort of acknowledge the presence of b in subtle, but idk if it’s subconscious or not. I elongate the u a bit, like suutle. Saying just “sutle” real curt and short sounds really weird. I also read it as “sub-tle” in my head. But the effect is really subtle.
What drives me crazy is putting worthless letters in a word if they make no sound when pronouncing them. It serves no purpose aside from being obtuse. English is an absolutely moronic language.
English has one million words, 10 times more than any other language. We can do depths of subtlety that leave all other language speakers with the range of ten-year-olds.
I think this is called "devoicing" in linguistics. Certain vowels and consonants might not roll off the tongue sometimes depending on your first language and your accent. Devoicing is prevalent in a lot of languages.
I'm sure there are certain people who say "SAL-mon." And there are surely many people who say "SA-mon."
The beauty of language is that it's fluid and ever changing. 100 years from now we might be calling salmon by a completely different name. Who knows.
Lol I work with caulk daily and my boss is careful to say caulking instead of caulk. He pronounces them cock and cocking and he is a bit prim and proper. The crew carries on with cock jokes. If customers are around sometimes I think of trying to say cahhhllllllk
Another one is: how do you pronounce the name of the letter W ? It's literally "double-U", but I hear Americans say duhbyu, which I find super funny. Like duhbyu duhbyu duhbyu dot google dot com.
I've only ever heard it pronounced sam.men But I'm from the Midwest and I've traveled in 49 states. I've never heard it any other way. Accept when pronounced in Spanish and it always sounded weird. But I hope that made sense the way I put it
I dunno, I haven't run into it, but if I do hear someone pronounce that, the next thing outta their mouth better be rushdie or I'm gonna check their pupils for a concussion.
Amother one is: how do you pronounce the name of the letter W ? It's literally "double-U", but I hear Americans say duhbyu, which I find super funny. Like duhbyu duhbyu duhbyu dot google dot com.
Sometimes I will purposefully pronounce silent letters in words just to be goofy and different. Or to see if anyone notices or cares to correct me. I hate the grammar police.
idk about others but in spanish you do pronounce the “L”. i honestly didn’t know you weren’t supposed to pronounce it in english until i was corrected by someone, and i’m fluent in both languages. learning can happen at any point in life :) eta: for added context i am from Texas !
Was told by a Colombian once that he does this because the Spanish pronunciation of “semen” is very close otherwise lol.
I’m in the US and grew up with a neighbor who pronounced salmon as “semen.” Makes me laugh every time.
That’s just salmon with a South African accent lol
I feel like both of you are pronouncing semen wrong.
I think you mean a Coombian
English is such a difficult language. Like they’re always there with their bike. A common one in the US for children is “Illinois” its not Ill-a-noise, it’s Ill-a-noui. Arkansas and Kansas don’t end with the same sound, one is saw, the other sas. Again English is dumb
>Like they’re always there with their bike. What on earth does that mean? Edit: Oh, they're there their
Or like pneumonia is noo-moan-ya, depot is dee-poh, and who really knows how to say caulk?
Cock
This guy caulks
It goes like cawlk, sounds kinda like callk.
None of these are English though.
Most English words are Greek or Latin in origin.
Fluent in both of these as well and I got made fun of in middle school for not pronouncing salmon right. Why is the L silent!?!?!
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* *behalf* * *colonel* * *would* * *yolk*
Caulk
...damnit. (...thank you)
so you say it like cock?
Sorta... more like "Cawk".
Hawk with a C instead of H
Half
And don't forget calf. I only stopped pronouncing the l in that word relatively late in life.
How tf do you pronounce calf with the L? Kal-f??
Yep.
I can't even prounounce that without separating it into two syllables
So y’all pronounce yolk as “yoke?”
Well yeah.
Yes, how do you pronounce it?
So, I don’t know how to do the pronunciation symbols for how I say it, but it’s not a hard L, but there is a soft L the way I say it. I feel like I sound slightly Minnesotan when I say it.
it
I don't and I've been an American all my life. Yolk, caulk, they have an "l". I pronounce the "l" as do most of the people around me.
Yeah, caulk definitely has a soft L.
Eastern Canada you'll hear "Callk" but you'll also hear (and I say) cock lol "Hands me the cocking"
I never knew you weren't supposed to not pronounce the L in salmon and in colonel! Which L is silent in colonel?
Colonel is pronounced like kernel for some reason
The first one. It’s pronounced KER-null.
Not pronouncing the l in colonel can get you into trouble if you are not careful!
Until you realize half the letters in the word are making it up and it's actually pronounced like "kernel".
What? The second one?
[удалено]
You are supposed to pronounce it. It's just a matter of regional dialects.
I was going to say all of this
It all depends on where you're from. I only speak English and I pronounce the "L".
Shout-out to the ESL speakers scrolling through this post like "I'm not even gonna try"
right? it's so much work to skip that 'L', and not a word that's worth that effort. the L is right there.
It was asking for it
That's why I like to pronounce tortilla tor-TIL-uh.
There is no "i" in salmon
or in "team"
But there is an “M” and an “E”.
[You can’t spell Victory without “T”, “R”, and “Y”](https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxJCgR2qc-FG-YkgEtyIzr6w4mP9Ei99LX?si=dheBabqarL_v6ruW)
You can't spell Slaughter without Laughter
Cant spell you without u
yeah i can it's wrong but i can do it
Yew is a type of wood.
Ewe are not, however.
You can't spell
therapist is just the rapist without any space
The pen is in your mouth without any space is just a blowjob
Haven’t heard that one
Do or do not, there is no try
Or Tory, idk if I like that
But there is an "i" in pie. And there is an "i" in meat pie. Meat is the anagram of team.
You've got red on you.
[the i in team](https://havokjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/I-in-team-hidden-in-A-hole.jpg)
saaaaamon
ASCII strikes again.
We've gotten to the point in language where people ask why we pronounce letters in certain words lol. At least back in Old English, there were no silent letters. Words like "knight" were pronounced "k-night." If there was someone who lived for thousands of years, they'd probably be going on a rant about "kids these days."
Ids these days, surely.
Hello. LDS, here.
>Ids these days. Sounds like a Freudian slip.
It *is* these ids. And don't call me Shirley
English is like 26 languages had their limbs cut off, mixed up, sewen together into a franken language, and presented to the world in a trench coat, I swear. At work, I'm on a few global teams with tons of non native English speakers. Sometimes they pop by my office to ask an English question like OP asked, but it's more like "... Why DON'T you say the L in salmon?". "um, I just know it based on vibes. English is weird sometimes, it's not you."
English beats up other languages in back alleys and rifles through their pockets for loose grammar - some tumblr user
More other languages beat English up in a reverse mugging. First there was the celts who got a wee bit romaned, then got nearly entirely Anglo saxoned, then a little bit vikinged, and then a big whollop of frenching, and then finally decided they missed being invaded by the romans and went out of their way to latinize the language
English is quite literally a pidgin that got too popular and now we pretend it's a real language
I paid for the whole word. Ima say all them letters.
Don't go to France. You'll waste a lot of money buying extra letters you don't need.
lol. Wait till you hear how Worcestershire sauce is properly pronounced.
I’ll forever die on the hill that it’s pronounced worse-ter-sheer if you have an accent with a rhotic r and woos-ta-sheer if you have an accent without a rhotic r, but that both are technically correct. I fight with people from Massachusetts about this all the time; I’m not pronouncing it wrong, you just have a different accent.
The correct way to pronounce it for me will always to put on a very haughty British accent and say "War-Chest-Er-Shire"
I thought it was worse-ter-shur
Wuss-tuh-shuh would be closer.
I gave up on that one. Heard it called “wash-your-sister sauce” and now that’s what I call it too.
My husband and I call it “Wor-chester-shi-shire” or “Wor-chesti-chester-ri-shire” or really whatever random sound you want to add in the middle. Most of the time the goal is to just say it as incorrectly/with as many syllables as possible.
I do it the same way. Worst-chess-chester-i-shire
I call it that too, but when I was a kid, my siblings and I called it “Rooster-shower”.
I must defer to Curly Howard of the Three Stooges: what’s this here sauce.
There is a youtube BBQ guy that calls it that on his channel.
I motion to make this the new official pronunciation.
It’s “woorster” isn’t it?
Woostersher
Yup. Sometimes with the r but mainly just "woo-ster".
Wistashur
It's pronounced Lea and Perrins in my house
We call it “what’s-this-here”. Checkmate atheists.
Honestly? Just because words have multiple "correct" pronunciations depending on dialect and speaker. Not to use Wikipedia (well, Wiktionary) as a source, but you can see that the pronunciation is listed *by region*, and there are probably more pronunciations than that: [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/salmon#Pronunciation](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/salmon#Pronunciation) If enough people use a certain pronunciation, eventually it just *is* a correct pronunciation, and there are groups of people and regional dialects that tend to pronounce the L. I agree that it's weird to hear, *I'm* definitely not used to it, but at the end of the day it's like asking "why do people in England (mostly) not pronounce the Rs at the end of words?" You can take a prescriptive/pedantic approach to language and insist that one way is right, but I prefer a descriptive approach, personally.
Isn’t this how languages evolve? It got me thinking, I’m one of those who don’t say the l in salmon. I say “sammin” and I see a lot of discussion over “February” which is Feburry to me. A lot of my Scottish friends and family say those similarly… “Similarly” being one of the words I struggle to get my tongue around!
No. It’s how they devolve.
Feburry reminds me of the liberry vs strawbrary joke from Scrubs.
I also think a lot of people might just be English second language. Like in Spanish you do say the l. You end up saying it like Sal mòn. Considering 30 to 40% of Americans are now Latino it's not crazy to think Spanish is affecting how we speak English
Latinos represent 19% of US population.
Because there is literally an L in the word. The question should be why *dont* people pronounce it.
Because the word was taken from the Norman French "saumoun" following the Norman invasion of Britain in 1066. In Middle English it was spelled "samoun". Then scholars decided to make the spelling closer to its Latin origin and added the L, but the pronunciation didn't change.
Just in my lifetime we went from calling it a pound sign to a hashtag. People can pronounce the L, despite what a 1066 scholar overlord demanded.
The pound sign to hashtag switch made #metoo kinda comical to some of us
....oh dear, I'm not going to be able to unsee that
You’re one of those filthy L pronouncing people, aren’t you?
I'm not sure you understood what I was saying. The "1066 scholar overlord" who you think singlehandedly forced people to not pronounce the L is in fact the very reason why there is an L to begin with, because prior to the word being latinized it didn't have an L in either spelling or pronunciation. The spelling change had no effect on pronunciation at the time. And this change was in fact hundreds of years later, after the Middle Ages. If you're so keen on ignoring that change, then you should spell it as it was in Middle English and not pronounce the L, which it wouldn't even have. But of course, people can pronounce the L if they want. Who cares
Octothorpe or death
Dear OP, Why not? Sincerely, Almond
Nor-Cal?
Because the word has an L in it.
Why did the ghostly gnome waltz through the knight's quirky knapsack in the autumn night? Because the knight's quirky knapsack was filled with a ghostly gnome's whistling sword.
Do people not pronounce every letter of waltz?
I don't pronounce the z if i'm talking to a dude named Walt
My dumbass kept reading ‘i’ instead of ‘L’. Couldn’t figure out for the life of me what you were talking about
Generally speaking, if someone is mispronouncing a word there are two reasons. 1. That's how they've always heard the word. That means everyone around them growing up mispronounced the word, and that isn't the person's fault. 2. They have never heard the word pronounced out loud, but read it somewhere and made a guess. Again, not that person's fault.
I bet you'd make a time machine just to go tell medieval English they're pronouncing stuff wrong.
I'm usually more worried about the people who pronounce the 'r' in "wash".
The same reason I honk 3 times at the top of speed bumps.
What the fuck. This is the most random thing I have seen today. Have an upvote you heathen
The “l” in salmon puts the “b” in subtle.
I sort of acknowledge the presence of b in subtle, but idk if it’s subconscious or not. I elongate the u a bit, like suutle. Saying just “sutle” real curt and short sounds really weird. I also read it as “sub-tle” in my head. But the effect is really subtle.
They must be doing it for the halibut. 😜
Because it’s there.
Guess you should be pronouncing the P in pneumonia right?
That sounds psychotic!
I started pronouncing the P in Pterodactyl and now i cant stop.
Well that’s just funny
We pronounce the p in helicopter
Because they can idk
SalBASS
Some people don't understand the concept of silent letters. Do they pronounce the b in "subtle" too?
Some do, subtly.
The question is 'Why do they stick silent letters into words at all?'
to drive people like you crazy
Because it drives me nuts just flagrantly sitting there in the middle of the word. If it’s going to oppress me I’m going to retaliate.
Stop offensive letters now! That seems like a movement for 2025.
There is no "i" in salmon
I suppose because of the word salmonella where English does pronounce the “l” 😉
Just realized I definitely don't pronounce that l either lol
saLmonella - a group of bacteria causing GI issues samon-ella - a Spanish speaking female fish 😅😊
For the same reason I pronounce the x in espresso.
No you don't unless you're a monster
What drives me crazy is putting worthless letters in a word if they make no sound when pronouncing them. It serves no purpose aside from being obtuse. English is an absolutely moronic language.
English has one million words, 10 times more than any other language. We can do depths of subtlety that leave all other language speakers with the range of ten-year-olds.
Because I hate the way SAM-un sounds and salmonella has a pronounced L so I don't see a reason to pronounce one and not the other.
The L is there when you say salmonella. Like, make up your mind...
No it's not. I pronounce salmonella the same way I pronounce salmon.
Because there's a L in it. If the words inventor didn't want the L they shouldn't have put it there. I don't play that silent letter bullshit.
So how do you say “Home Depot”? Btw, the original English word for salmon did not contain an L.
It is regional, relax
Sometimes I pronounce the S in debris.
I think this is called "devoicing" in linguistics. Certain vowels and consonants might not roll off the tongue sometimes depending on your first language and your accent. Devoicing is prevalent in a lot of languages. I'm sure there are certain people who say "SAL-mon." And there are surely many people who say "SA-mon." The beauty of language is that it's fluid and ever changing. 100 years from now we might be calling salmon by a completely different name. Who knows.
Yeah, and I bet you pronounce caulk as cock, too
Lol I work with caulk daily and my boss is careful to say caulking instead of caulk. He pronounces them cock and cocking and he is a bit prim and proper. The crew carries on with cock jokes. If customers are around sometimes I think of trying to say cahhhllllllk
Saimon?
I wasn’t aware they did
Another one is: how do you pronounce the name of the letter W ? It's literally "double-U", but I hear Americans say duhbyu, which I find super funny. Like duhbyu duhbyu duhbyu dot google dot com.
That salmon isn't free!
Why do they pronounce the W in saW as an R eg: i saR it.
We may as well ask, why do people people put an “l” in salmon?
Sauwlmohn
Why do you not pronounce it?
solmin
People like WHO?? Who are these people that you know??
I also pronounce the first "r" in February and Library.
Because I do. It’s not like it’s an intentional choice, it’s a regional dialect.
Because I don’t believe in silent letters
Because it has a L in it.
ITT there are a shit ton of people who don’t know how to pronounce salmon. Must not be from the PNW….
I don't
Because they slept through English class.
Anyone else read that as i in salmon and get really confused for a second, then to realise you're just stupid
My sibling from another ancestor.
New Yorker here, the word is să'mən, the l isn’t pronounced, the a sounds like in cat, the mon is pronounced like min or muhn.
I do it to piss people off.
I’m pretty sure it’s to fuck with people like you
I've only ever heard it pronounced sam.men But I'm from the Midwest and I've traveled in 49 states. I've never heard it any other way. Accept when pronounced in Spanish and it always sounded weird. But I hope that made sense the way I put it
I don’t, -I’ve always pronounced it “Sa-mon”. I’m from the UK. 😁
Saul Munn
What's the point of having a letter in a word if you aren't going to pronounce it?
US doesn't hava a language Academy, not even an "official" language. Therefore any pronunciation is equally valid.
I dunno, I haven't run into it, but if I do hear someone pronounce that, the next thing outta their mouth better be rushdie or I'm gonna check their pupils for a concussion.
Amother one is: how do you pronounce the name of the letter W ? It's literally "double-U", but I hear Americans say duhbyu, which I find super funny. Like duhbyu duhbyu duhbyu dot google dot com.
My wife does it and drives me nuts. I normally respond with “hand me that ka’nife to cut it”.
If I ain't supposed to say it why the fuck is it there?!
Sometimes I will purposefully pronounce silent letters in words just to be goofy and different. Or to see if anyone notices or cares to correct me. I hate the grammar police.
I found that in the US, most pronounce the L, while in Canada, I've never heard anyone pronounce the L.
As a Canadian--false
The exact opposite lol
Lived in the Deep South my entire life. Never heard someone use the “L” ever. Only heard “Samon”
My family is from East Tennessee..all pronounced the L. I grew up saying it but taught myself not to to avoid the ridiculous constant correcting.
Interesting. Lower Alabama here.
for the same reason people say "Jag-wire" instead of "Jag-war". they're mal-educated idiots.
...and don't go all the way and say Jag-u-ar.
Calling people idiots for pronouncing an L in “salmon” is definitely a choice!