"folk" with an L

[David Bowie]

From:    James Harbeck <jharbeck at SYMPATICO.CA>
> somebody else wrote:

>> He pronounces the "L" in "folksinger" very distinctly.  I've never
>> heard
>> that before; nor, apparently, has OED.

> My brother does it all the time. Not sure where he got it, because I
> don't do it and I never noticed my parents doing it either. Probably
> just a pertinacious spelling pronunciation. He grew up in Alberta in
> the late '60s and '70s.


I do it, too, not 100% of the time but it's present more often than
not. (Born 1970 non-Eastern Shore Maryland south of DC, lived there
until i was almost 17.) I also have /l/ in words like 'talk, chalk,
calm'--yes, it's there even where there was historically no /l/ at all.

I'm aware of this for two reasons: First of all, there is absolutely
no way that i can get 'hawk' and 'talk' to make sense as proper
rhymes, and because i got mocked by my students about it at my first
faculty job.

Interestingly, i do not have intrusive /l/ in 'both' (which my
students here are finding all over the place in Anchorage).

David Bowie

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