USAGE: pronouncing "l", "needs washed"

My wife (an eastern Iowan by birth) pronounces the "l" in "walk" and
"talk."  Sounds really weird to me.

But the thing I don't get is that a few years ago, I first heard the
construction, "that shirt needs washed" from my wife.  (I would say,
"that shirt needs to be washed," or "that shirt needs washing."  To
me, "washed" is not a nominal, and therefore cannot be used as the
direct object of "needs," whereas "to be washed" and "washing" are
both nominals.)

Now I'm noticing it in the speech of almost everyone I know from the
midwest.  But I *never* heard it, growing up in Michigan.

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                       edheil@postmark.net
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Nik Taylor wrote:

> nicole perrin wrote:
> > I noticed this in John's post too - I distinctly say /balm/, as well as
> > /kalm/ and /kwalm/ and /alms/, is this abnormal?
>
> A lot of l-consonant clusters, especially /lm/, tend to vary in whether
> or not /l/ is pronounced.  I say both /almz/ and /amz/, as well as
> /kA(l)m/, /kwA(l)m/, and /bA(l)m/
>
> --
> "Old linguists never die - they just come to voiceless stops." -
> anonymous
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