vl cluster spotting

[Laurence Horn]

>Aside from the Vlach, the OED CD-ROM has a few, from Russian or
>Dutch/Afrikaans:  vladimirite, vlakte, vlast, vlei.  (And others for
>which the pronunciation is "fl" or not given but probably "fl", many
>"southern ME".)
>
>Joel

A former colleague of mine was named Frank Vlach, everyone pronounced
his surname with the cluster (although they varied on the final
consonant); it's the same root as Wallachia.  Another not uncommon
name is Vlastos (from the Greek).  I think of vl- as having the same
status as vr-:  Not exactly English, but pronounced as a cluster when
encountered (cf. "vroom" for the latter, or "vraisemblance" as a load
word).

LH

>
>At 11/10/2007 03:40 AM, Benjamin Barrett wrote:
>>A friend of mine pronounced "vlog" yesterday (Friday) using a "vl"
>>cluster. Although there are a few names, mainly Vlad/Vladimir, I don't
>>see any other words starting with vl- in my AHD3. It took me a couple of
>>seconds to figure out what "vlog" meant (video blog), and then another
>>couple for the cluster to register.
>>
>>Benjamin Barrett
>>a cyberbreath for language life
>>livinglanguages.wordpress.com (soon to be back online)
>>
>>------------------------------------------------------------
>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org