Comments on: Salmon and Salmonella

By: Robert Beard

Robert Beard — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 18:30:40 +0000

Thanks for pointing this out. I fixed it.

By: David

David — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 22:58:50 +0000

Regarding your last paragraph – the proper pronunciation of the word “often” IS the same as “soften” – since the 1500′s, as expressed on various pronunciations sites, including Merriam Webster’s audio, you don’t pronounce the T in either word. You will hear people who say it that way, but that is incorrect.

By: Randy

Randy — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 14:12:15 +0000

I pronounce Sal-mon with the “L” sound included. Never have understood why it’s pronounced Sa-mmen.

By: Steve

Steve — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 08:17:33 +0000

In the summer of this year, ’09, there was a salmonella outbreak and I watched a PBS show where a doctor was interviewed. The doctor pronounced salmonella without the “l”, like salmon.It is an everyday word for a doctor. The PBS announcers ponounced the “l”. I knew the doctor was correct since that is how salmonella was pronounced by the professors in school in the late 70′s when I was taking bacteriology and pathology. I was surprised the dictionary now has the “l” pronounced. Salmonella is named after Dr. Salmon (a northerner) and I believe the pronounciation has probably been changed due to people learning by reading and not hearing,as mentioned above. I may be wrong but I think most people who had a scientic education don’t pronounce the “l” in salmonella.

By: rbeard

rbeard — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 13:39:17 +0000

In my experience, pronouncing cold as code is limited to those times when you have one and your nose is stopped up. If I had done a complete description of the [l] > [U] phenomenon, I would have mentioned that this shift occurs only before voiceless consonants, i.e. consonants made without vibrating the vocal cords, e.g. [p], [t], [k] and not their vocal correlates, [b], [d], [g]. Colbert and bulb preserve the [l] in pronunciation up North. In fact, after [ol], the [d] tends to drop. We even write old as ol' but the [d] is often dropped after bold, gold, and similar words. The interaction of the sound [l] with other vowels and consonants is rather complicated, which goes a long way in explaining the mismatch between spoken and written English.

By: rbeard

rbeard — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 11:41:58 +0000

It is a common shift among many languages.

By: Luciano Eduardo de Oliveira

Luciano Eduardo de Oliveira — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 12:38:59 +0000

Among people raised in the North, however, unless L is followed by a vowel, it is pronounced [u] (oo), that is, before consonants and at the ends of words. My sons, who were born and raised in Pennsylvania pronounce milk [miuk] and hill [hiu].
The same thing happens in Brazilian Portuguese. The L at the end of syllables is pronounced u. That’s why lots of people have trouble spelling mau (bad) and mal (badly) correctly. And most Brazilian speakers of English pronounce code and cold alike, as well as ode and old, coat and colt, and many more.