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Re: USAGE: pronouncing "l", "needs washed"

From:And Rosta <a.rosta@...>
Date:Friday, December 10, 1999, 13:03
Nik Taylor
> > And Rosta wrote: > > I cannot see why that should have led to the restoration of > > /l/. The pronunciations /wAk/ and /tAk/ aren't new to me; only > > ones with /l/ in. > > Oh. Well, probably just never lost it in the first place.
Do you have it in ba(u)lk, caulk, stalk too? I don't have access to the Survey of English dialects to see if the /l/ is preserved there in any dialects in England, and nor do I have access to a history of Eng phonology that would date the loss. The OED just gives the L-less pronunciation. But at any rate, I think it far more likely that the /l/ was reintroduced, for the reasons I gave in my earlier message, than that it was not lost in the first place. Corrections welcomed. --And.