"folk" with an L

[Wilson Gray]

FWIW, I've heard this cheer story for so long - ca. forty years - from so
many different people from Norfolk that *I* believe it.

OTOH, that there are Northern-white speakers who don't pronounce the "l" in
the name of the dance is a real surprise!

As for "polka-dot," I've never noticed anything special WRT the
pronunciation of it. It goes without out saying that the word "polka," for
all practical purposes, doesn't exist in BE. My wife points out that she
just recently bought a new, po[l]ka-dot nightgown. "Polka-dot" is so rare in
my speech that I have no idea how it sounds unmonitored: po[l]ka-dot and
po[w]ka-dot both fall equally trippingly from the tongue.

How can anyone tell what language "polka" is from, since the word is the
same in nearly every Slavic language? Historical dancistics, I suppose. ;-)

-Wilson

On Tue, Mar 16, 2010 at 2:27 PM, Herb Stahlke <hfwstahlke at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Herb Stahlke <hfwstahlke at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "folk" with an L
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Is it true that the Norfolk high school football cheer ends with
>
> We don't drink!
> We don't smoke!
> Norfolk! Norfolk! Norfolk!
>
> Herb
>
> On Tue, Mar 16, 2010 at 10:58 AM, Steve Kl. <stevekl at gmail.com> wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       "Steve Kl." <stevekl at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: "folk" with an L
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > It's nice to know that I'm not the only one! I
> >
> > On Tue, Mar 16, 2010 at 10:48 AM, David A. Daniel <dad at pokerwiz.com>
> wrote:
> >
> >> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >> -----------------------
> >> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> Poster:       "David A. Daniel" <dad at POKERWIZ.COM>
> >> Subject:      Re: "folk" with an L
> >>
> >>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >> For me, polka with an L is for the dance and polka without the L is for
> the
> >> dot.
> >> DAD
> >>
> >> >This morning on MSNBC a news reader used the word "polka," with /l/.
> >> >Back in the 50s in SE Michigan, the southern Chicago suburbs, and
> >> >Milwaukee I remember it pronounced without the /l/.
> >>
> >> Herb
> >>
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> >>
> >
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-- 
-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"––a strange complaint to come
from the mouths of people who have had to live.
–Mark Twain

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