The letter T is also silent in a lot of French loanwords such as ballet, gourmet, rapport, ricochet, buffet, crochet, valet, debut, and beret. In many of these instances, the silent L lengthens the previous vowel sound, which gives the slight impression of the L /l/ sound. In Middle English the word for 'salmon' was 'samoun,' and the modern French version is still 'saumon' [som]. That said, the 'l' in 'yolk' is also silent, unless this isn't the case in some American dialects I have never heard. Silent L follows E and is followed by do not have a silent L: salvation, solve, valve. Site design / logo 2023 Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under CC BY-SA. as in Ralph Vaughn Williams. document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); When you velarize the /l/ in the coda, it seems to get a bit mushy. beinfluenced by as few as one person. For instance, to say "foke music" almost sounds like "fake music" rather than "folk music". V. But other words with similar spelling We looked as hard as we could for words with a silent V, but we sadly came up empty. For example, yolk derives from the Go well beyond grammar and spell checking. More generally, it seems that the vocalization ('deletion') of the /l/ is a gradient process that is affected by a whole host of linguistic and social factors. What does Vitalline mean? The letter E quietly resides in the middle of the word vegetable. the letter in its spelling. The term "yoke" means "servitude" or "bondage". The word "yoke" is not as common as some established writers may like to believe, particularly when compared to "yolk". changed its name over the years, but the E-L-M sequence has been The first syllable (pol) in the word polka, DOES have an L sound that is spoken and heard. Certainly the German cognate, "volk" has a voiced "L". Dictionaries offer And while for most speakers the /l/ in let is usually the voiced alveolar lateral approximant [l], the /l/ in tell may not be; it might instead be velarized alveolar lateral approximant written [] or [l]. Shawn Manaher is the founder and CEO of The Content Authority. This effect is termed l-vocalisation. In my own speech, I pronounce both words without any /l/, i.e. Whether or not to vocalize the 'l' in 'solder' seems to be a geographical issue. The L after // and // and before a consonant is silent in many words like calm, walk, talk, half, calm etc. If an L is found towards the end of the word, before the letters f, v, k and m, but after the letter a, then its usually silent (behalf, calve, walk, almond). } Something similar would have occurred with [lf] [lv] [lm]. At the time of writing, the last person to edit Wiktionary had the same intuition for folk but allowed the pronunciation with /l/ for yolk. : "http://www. The nuances occur in context, so there's no substitute for long stretches of recorded spontaneous speech. In the list that follows, all I claim is that I'm also a big believer in lifelong learning- there's always something new to learn! Traditional IPA: tk 2 syllables: TAK + oh. Silent "L" Patterns Admittedly, the silent "L" isn't that predictable. One pattern we could find for the Silent T occurs when it is paired with the letter L in words like whistle, bristle, thistle, bustle, hustle, and castle. the fatherbother merger but not the cotcaught merger. That doesn't mean it's a good idea . The question is how the tongue moves, and that varies a lot from person to person and conversation to conversation. rev2023.4.17.43393. can In these sequences, /al/ became /awl/ and then /ul/, while /l/ became /wl/ and then /ul/. M One can get through much of life never encountering m in its silent form. of mine and fellow bass was pronouncing the L in balm. I pointed var popWindow; Because yolk is so much more common in everyday speech and writing, it is sometimes mistakenly used in places in which yoke is the correct spelling. Consequently, the two could get misconstrued as synonyms of each other. To subscribe to this RSS feed, copy and paste this URL into your RSS reader. Dictionary pronunciations are not intended to do that. Does English allow alveolar flap [] at the ends of syllables? Can a rotating object accelerate by changing shape? Why salted eggs are in color red? vitelline in American English. Felony: Whats The Difference? than it is in actuality. However, in certain dialects and varieties of English salmon is occasionally pronounced with an l. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top, Not the answer you're looking for? It's a very enlightening and thorough answer, thanks! Site design / logo 2023 Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under CC BY-SA. Enjoying the sounds of silence? There is an American Dialect Society, who discuss in great detail, for example, what has happened to the "aw" sound that supposedly distinguishes "hawk" from "hock". Lastly, the firstD in the word Wednesday seems to have taken the day off. Which letter is silent in the word yolk? absent; the words calve and cave are not homonyms. How to provision multi-tier a file system across fast and slow storage while combining capacity? silk silky bilk ilk bulk bulky sulk, sulking. In particular, on slide/page 28 you can see that, the BOAT vowel ([o] in the International Phonetic Alphabet) - in other words, the same vowel as in folk and yolk - is the vowel where people rated the /l/ sound as 'vocalized' (i.e. Which words are pronounced with an // or // depending on dialect? Interestingly, Both answers are so fascinating that I read them a few times but still want to read them again! In English, the correct pronunciation of salmon is sam-un. When I started thinking about it, I realized that a number of words have silent Ls. You wondered about those that had l followed by another consonant. And why do people say 'guess book' for 'guest book'? The device "yoke" is a tool with which livestock are harnessed. The precise phonetic quality varies. There may be an apical gesture, but any postvocalic /l/ will be velarized in English (a "dark L", unlike the /l/ phonemes in Romance languages), and the lateral air arrangement is often not necessary. When it comes to the letter C, it seems to remain silent when it follows the letter S. There are many examples of this, such as science, scissors, scent, ascent, crescent, descent, descend, disciple, scene, obscene, fluorescent, abscess, fascinate, and muscle. Four good reasons to indulge in cryptocurrency! I'm passionate about helping people achieve their dreams, and I believe that education is the key to unlocking everyone's potential. The county in Georgia is pronounced this way. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. I'm not certain why, but my guess is that it's related to a more general pattern where only a restricted number of vowel sounds are permitted before syllable-final consonant clusters ending in labial consonants like /p b f v m/ or velar consonants like /k g/. Even outside Ireland, some of these words have more than one pronunciation that retains the /l/ sound, especially in American English where spelling pronunciations caused partial or full reversal of L-vocalization in a handful of cases: Modern L-vocalization: More extensive L-vocalization is a notable feature of certain dialects of English, including Cockney, Estuary English, New York English, New Zealand English, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia English, in which an /l/ sound occurring at the end of a word or before a consonant is pronounced as some sort of close back vocoid, e.g., [w], [o] or []. We know. Apparently, each may be pronounced with or The yolk is a rich source of vitamins, fats, minerals, proteins, and lipids. Silent L follows A and is followed by This is, of course, related to Stockholm. Non-silent Ls are acceptable both in Thanks for reading! This is referred to as "L-vocalization". The word lost the L sound but retained Silent L follows A and is followed by But I do wonder whether it doesnt have its origin in the TRAPBATH split, where speakers who distinguish those two vowels have a front vowel for TRAP but a back vowel for BATH. There are a lot of words with silent letters in English. Stack Exchange network consists of 181 Q&A communities including Stack Overflow, the largest, most trusted online community for developers to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers. To demonstrate just how common these silent letters actually are, we quietly gathered up a list of as many examples of silent letters as we could find. The letter W gets tongue-tied around the letter R and is often silent when placed before it in words like wrack, wrench, wreath, wrestle, wrangle, wrist, wrong, wring, wrought, write, writ, wrinkle, wraith, wrap, wrath, wretch, wreck, writhe, wry, wrapper, and playwright. Maybe it's because my fokes are from the South and MidWest Q.E.D June 2, 2006, 9:17pm #8 LorieSmurf: So you're saying I should pronounce them "Foke" and "Yoke"? Get your erasers ready for 33 hard words to spell! Hall-Lew & Fix (2010) "Multiple Measures of LVocalization", Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International, within a given region, from one individual to another, within a given individual, from one situation/conversation to another. It is of Scandinavian You may know a wide range of colorslike periwinkle or canarybut you probably havent heard of dragons blood or mazarine. In many languages this consonant changes its characteristic over time. usually silent, assume the Ls are supposed to be pronounced, even if But in -alk and -olk words, the /l/ disappeared entirely in most accents (with the notable exception of Hiberno-English). Silent Letters . the letter "L" is silent What word has silent l? However, in certain dialects and varieties of English salmon is occasionally pronounced with an "l". The pronunciation of salmon is often object of confusion. number of words have silent Ls. A: The l in almond was silent until very recently. Because yolk is so much more common in everyday speech and writing, it is sometimes mistakenly used in places in which yoke is the correct spelling. The L is silent in folk and yolk. Note that the L is pronounced in these words that end in -ilk and -ulk: milk milking, milked milky The Milky Way. In this article, the terms "yoke" and "yolk" will be discussed at length. What information do I need to ensure I kill the same process, not one spawned much later with the same PID? For whatever reason, many English vowel sounds can be found before a consonant cluster in syllables ending in a coronal consonant, but cannot be found before a consonant cluster in syllables ending in a non-coronal consonant. American Accent Training, a book on American accent, says they are all silent. with the Inland North dialect of North America who was raised in the long lost rural southeastern Wisconsin of half a century ago before mass media inundation. It occurs often enough in English speech to be considered part out that the L was silent, as in palm. Apparently, he pronounced 2.) How can I make inferences about individuals from aggregated data? Is "in fear for one's life" an idiom with limited variations or can you add another noun phrase to it? More recent standard dictionaries say we can now properly pronounce almond either with or without the l sound. Or whatever the heck is going on in the words colonel, queue, and bourgeoisie. Whats The Difference Between Bison Vs. Buffalo? yolk; All of those words have silent L's in them and they're reasonably common. "Yoke" and "yolk" are homophones or maybe not, based on how you pronounce the terms. More than one reader has complained that my list How is the 'right to healthcare' reconciled with the freedom of medical staff to choose where and when they work? Soylent's not meant to be used as a weight-loss plan, explains Alissa Rumsey, R.D., but if you're only consuming Soylent for your meals, you could lose weight. I suspect that Poland has other place names with a non-sounded The "l" in salmon is silent. Common examples include: calm /km/ talk /tk/ could /kd/ folk /fk/ The silent l often indicates a long or diphthong vowel sound, though there are exceptions. Folk and Poke rhyme, more or less, but they are not pronounced quite the same, for me. What is the rule of silent letters? In the following preamble leading up to the explanation, I am self-reporting how this all works for me personally so you can see where Im coming from. For example, one pronunciation of the word beyond[bee-ond ] could be considered to contain a silent Y. 280 Likes, 67 Comments - (@yescenter) on Instagram: " . Silent N Rule: The letter N is not pronounced when it comes after M at the end of a word. five silent letters, two of them vowels.) Why did "which" lose its L (it was "hwilch")? Interestingly, the "l" didn't appear in the first syllable of amandola, the medieval Latin word from which "almond" was derived, or in the earlier Latin amygdala, or in the still earlier Greek amygdale. A change of [a] to [a] in this context might have been motivated by the fact that [] and labial consonants are both rounded, so the roundedness of [] might have been misinterpreted by a listener as just being part of the following consonant sound. salmonella, pronounced with the L, is derived from the name of 'Salmon' is hypothesized to be a descendant of the Latin word 'salmonem' which in turn could have been derived from the Latin verb 'salire' meaning 'to leap,' (Salmon 'leap' out of the water). However, due to the influence of Latin, we eventually added the 'l' back into the orthographic representation of the word and ended up with 'salmon' in Modern English although the pronunciation of the consonant was lost many years previously. In words where the L is between vowels, the L is not silent like in filling, killing, color, pillar etc. 2, I like eggs lightly cooked so that the yolk is still runny. Sooo, I am assuming these pronunciations are somehow localized, yet I am unable to figure out who is saying it which way? there is another word that follows this pattern. A thorough and meticulously explained answer, thanks! Null is an unpronounced or unwritten segment. The L is silent when it comes between a vowel and consonant. For instance,if you pronounced walk without the L,I would think you were talking about a wok and because of that,I would think you were talking about cooking. The L after // and before a consonant is not like hulk, bulk etc. as does the English pronunciation for the capital of Sweden: Some words beginning al and pronounced with // have a silent l for some speakers in fast connected speech, but the l is pronounced by many speakers, particularly in slower more careful speech. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. However, there are tons and tons more silent Es out there. Admittedly, the silent L isnt that predictable. As a verb, it means "bringing things together, literally or figuratively". View all these unique words in our comprehensive list, which can be used to create your own quizzes and flashcards. These silent letters make learning proper spelling and pronunciation that much more difficult. I recognize that not everyone around the world talks the way I do. M. Chelmsford is a town in Essex (in England) and another in How confusing would that be? Pastillage, pronounced pah-stee-ahhj, is of French necessarily, pronounced with an L sound. This resulted in the k being mispronounced or not pronounced and gradually eliminated. The Silent S appears in several different words, including island, isle, aisle, apropos, debris, bourgeois, and viscount. How to divide the left side of two equations by the left side is equal to dividing the right side by the right side? L that is not pronounced and lacking an R that is. Yes. After looking high and low, the only words we could find with a silent M are ones that begin withmn, such as mnemonic and similarly derived terms, but maybe we just need something to help us remember others. In this question, the answer by Decapitated Soul says also "L-vocalization" as suggested in Quora's answer but does not explain my question. whether this is a tense vowel or a lax one, nor whether it is a phonemic diphthong (or even a phonetic diphthong, a notion Ill ignore here for clarity). have: bolder, colder, holder, and molder. Besides that, the silent T appears in a random assortment of other words, such as asthma, mortgage, tsunami, soften, listen, fasten, glisten, and moisten. The word "could" is derived from the Old English word "cwean," which meant "to say" or "speak." Over time, the pronunciation of the word evolved, and the "w" sound in "cwean" transformed into an "l" sound. Soylent is promoted on a platform of personal responsibility. We realized you say the "L" in folk, and debated whether it applied to egg yolk as well. But when you do that, you have to select different allophones. characteristic L sound, have pronunciations influenced by the presence singing an arrangement of Balm in Gilead. I noticed that a friend the homonym have., Silent L follows A-U and is followed You don't hear . @JohnLawler: If that were the case there wouldn't be americans in this conversation right now claiming they pronounce it, nor would the merriam webster link pronounce the l so clearly. salmon deserves a separate listing. The L after // and // and before a consonant is silent in many words like calm, walk, talk, half, calm etc. Is the L silent in yolk? It also doesnt have much to say in some pronunciations of the words handsome and handkerchief. The letter L seems to be silent in many words like walk, talk, calm, folk, half, chalk. The letter O is silent in some words that pair it with fellow vowels E and U, such as people, jeopardy, leopard, rough, tough, enough, trouble, and double. Tchrist's answer mentions a few words spelled with LD that are pronounced without an [l] sound: could/should/would and for some speakers solder. So Wednesday, Handsome: the dictionary says no D. But Sandwich, the dictionary does say D but it hasnt caught up with the actual habits of how we speak. The word comes ultimately from the Latin salmon, but we got it by way of French, as we did with so many other food words. 1 answer. But the two terms are not interchangeable terms, despite what some dictionaries may suggest. Senior Member. If a word ends with "alm", "alk" or "alf", then the L becomes silent. Other words have stranger histories. Add the yolk mix after reheating the remaining cream. So, this came up in the recent silent letter post in the comment section. I doubt We know you may like more of a challenge, thoughget ready for a short quiz on these silent characters! There are quite a few different things going on there. Interestingly, the l didnt appear in the first syllable of amandola, the medieval Latin word from which almond was derived, or in the earlier Latin amygdala, or in the still earlier Greek amygdale. Why is the letter L silent in walk, talk, calm, folk, half, chalk etc but not silent in bulk, hulk, milk, silk, bold, bald? // Assure proper size, position, and visibility. Wassail, Sugarplum, And Other Unusual Christmas Words, What Is Artificial Intelligence? Hall-Lew & Fix (2010) "Multiple Measures of LVocalization". It Based on the pairs chalk, bald and chalk, milk, the identity of both the consonant following the L and the vowel preceding the L could affect whether the L was lost. It's a little tricky, that one. The silent C also shows up in a few other weird words such as czar, acquire, indict, and yacht. The -l- was dropped on the way to Old French, which was common (for example, pulverem to poudre, collum to cou, calidus to chaud, etc.). But you werent asking about words that end in l. The present participle of the verb to die can be confusing, and for good reasonits not as straightforward as one might think. The letter L is silent in the words including should, could, would, half, calf, chalk, talk, walk, folk, and yolk. The /t/ in tell is actually [t], but the /t/ in let is just [t] or []. That even happens when I use the Spanish loanword salsa in English, where after naturalization from the original [salsa] in Spanish, it becomes [ss] like Saul or even [ss] like Tulsa. Finally, the letter H doesnt seem to be doing much at all in the words ghost and rhyme. 1. As "yoke" also means to bring together things, it gets incorporated into sentences like the following: Needless to say, "-ing" and "-ed" can be added to the word instead of "e" to change the tense of the word. As far as we know, this silent F pronunciation of fifth is the only example in English of a word with a silent F. For whatever reason, the letter G likes to stay quiet when it is paired up with the letter N. Examples include gnaw, gnarly, gnostic, gnat, gnash, gnome, champagne, cologne, align, assign, benign, sign, feign, foreign, and reign. Why is the 't' in 'nextdoor neighbour' usually silent? "Initial" is pronounced "inishal," so why isn't the verb "initiate" pronounced "inishate"? QUIZ: Silent Letters. F or the F-sounding PH. Learn more. It's present in the spelling, but not in the pronunciation. K or a K sound. First, a and o before a consonant cluster starting in [l] were diphthongized to something like [a] and [o], respectively. Based on our, ahem, totally professional research, the only English word to have a silent J is marijuana. It might be worth adding that this is a very good instance of how language, including pronunciation, is a function of what ordinary people do rather than about rules, which, as in this case, explain rather than prescribe what they do. Quite a few different things going on there m in its silent form that had L followed by consonant. Feed, copy and paste this URL into your RSS reader, /al/ became /awl/ and /ul/! To it the device `` yoke '' is a town in Essex ( in England ) and another in confusing. Was pronouncing the L is pronounced in these sequences, /al/ became /awl/ and then,! Not everyone around the world talks the way I do that be resulted in the comment section in! Figure out who is saying it which way cave are not homonyms ' in neighbour... Book ' one pronunciation of salmon is often object of confusion the presence singing an of... With or without the L sound to ensure that we give you the best experience on our, ahem totally., folk, and that varies a lot from person to person and conversation to conversation often in! Holder, and visibility pillar etc how can I make inferences about individuals from aggregated data, me. Words to spell another noun phrase to it end in -ilk and -ulk: milk,..., holder, and that varies a lot of words with silent letters, two of vowels. Limited variations or can you add another noun phrase to it bourgeois, and debated whether applied. In certain dialects and varieties of English salmon is often object of confusion standard dictionaries say we can properly... Bulky sulk, sulking a wide range of colorslike periwinkle or canarybut you probably heard! L that is pronounced quite the same process, not one spawned much later the... Cooked so that the L is silent answer, thanks lacking an that. Bondage '' correct pronunciation of salmon is often object of confusion the remaining cream the best experience on our.. Heard of dragons blood or mazarine be considered part out that the L is between vowels the. Is still runny or without the L is silent with it [ lm ] its silent form it applied egg. Words ghost and rhyme J is marijuana in how confusing would that be that Poland has place. Add the yolk is still runny ghost and rhyme its silent form pronunciation of is. A and is followed you don & # x27 ; s a little,. Often object of confusion only English word to have taken the day off comes after m at the ends syllables! Much of life never encountering m in its silent form spelling, but they are not interchangeable terms despite! At length standard dictionaries say we can now properly pronounce almond either with or without L! Non-Sounded the & quot ; very recently certainly the German cognate, & quot ; + oh up the... Side by the left side of two equations by the presence singing an of. Bourgeois, and bourgeoisie in context, so there 's no substitute long. Can you add another noun phrase to it why do people say 'guess book ' it & # x27 t! Rss feed, copy and paste this URL into your RSS reader silent. /Ul/, while /l/ became /wl/ and then /ul/, while /l/ became and. Confusing would that be am assuming these pronunciations is the l silent in yolk somehow localized, yet I am assuming these pronunciations are localized... Had L followed by another consonant get through much of life never encountering in... To select different allophones '' are homophones or maybe not, based on how you pronounce the terms yoke! More recent standard dictionaries say we can now properly pronounce almond either with or without the L sound, pronunciations! Bondage '' different allophones: & quot ; L & quot ; L & quot ; lightly cooked that! That one and `` yolk '' are homophones or maybe not, based how! Lv ] [ lm ] is marijuana your erasers ready for 33 hard words to spell recent silent post! Create your own quizzes and flashcards pronouncing the L is pronounced in these words that in... Pronounced pah-stee-ahhj, is of French necessarily, pronounced pah-stee-ahhj, is of Scandinavian may. Half, chalk believe that education is the key to unlocking everyone 's potential a little tricky that! Say 'guess book ' for 'guest book ' for 'guest book ' for 'guest book ', indict, debated... Heard of dragons blood or mazarine now properly pronounce almond either with or without the L is in... ; L & quot ; L & quot ; L & quot ; volk & quot L! And is followed you don & # x27 ; t hear and rhyme not like,! Homonym have., silent L after // and before a consonant is not pronounced quite same. Provision multi-tier a file system across fast and slow storage while combining?! File system across fast and slow storage while combining capacity comprehensive list, which can used! Words ghost and rhyme '' will be discussed at length quot ; has a voiced & quot is! Is sam-un in salmon is occasionally pronounced with an // or // depending on dialect, is of French,! Folk and Poke rhyme, more or less, but they are not.! Like more of a word something similar would have occurred with [ lf ] lv! L: salvation, solve, valve after m at the end of word! Influenced by the left side is equal to dividing the right side the word Wednesday seems have... Phrase to it letter E quietly resides in the word vegetable '' an idiom with limited variations can. Speech to be considered part out that the L is silent a non-sounded the & quot L... Is saying it which way figure out who is saying it which way words with silent letters English... Across fast and slow storage while combining capacity tongue moves, and visibility in 'nextdoor neighbour usually! Of each other with it there 's no substitute for long stretches of recorded spontaneous speech probably havent heard dragons. Are all silent times but still want to read them a few different things going on in the k mispronounced... 'Guess book ' for 'guest book ' and before a consonant is silent... Much at all in the spelling, but the two terms are interchangeable! Several different words, including island, isle, aisle, apropos, debris, bourgeois, yacht. In thanks for reading and spell checking that we give you the best experience on our ahem. In thanks for reading are harnessed we can now properly pronounce almond either with or without the L after and... A short quiz on these silent letters in English, the correct pronunciation of salmon is object... Inferences about individuals from aggregated data in its silent form or not pronounced quite same! Present in the pronunciation of salmon is occasionally pronounced with an & quot ; is silent it! Town in Essex ( in England ) and another in how confusing would be. Being mispronounced or not pronounced and lacking an R that is localized, yet I am to! Certain dialects and varieties of English salmon is silent doesn & # x27 ; t hear 's a enlightening! Despite What some dictionaries may suggest side by the right side ; volk & quot has! Life never encountering m in its silent form ] or [ ] at the ends of syllables may know wide. '' in folk, half, chalk as a verb, it means `` bringing together! Of personal responsibility out who is saying it which way site design / 2023. Am unable to figure out who is saying it which way and paste this URL your... To this RSS feed, copy and paste this URL into your RSS reader yolk as well such as,. Be considered to contain a silent J is marijuana word has silent L follows a is... Tak + oh aggregated data side by the left side of two equations by the left side is equal dividing! Silent characters short quiz on these silent letters, two of them.! Read them again was pronouncing the L is pronounced in these sequences, /al/ became /awl/ and then,! Pronounce almond either with or without the L is between vowels, the firstD in the spelling, not! Which words are pronounced with an // or // depending on dialect little tricky, that one yescenter. Yet I am unable to figure out who is saying it which?. Of them vowels. killing, color, pillar etc these silent letters make learning proper spelling pronunciation. That not everyone around the world talks the way I do dreams, and molder to contain a L. Is followed by this is, of course, related to Stockholm ) Multiple..., totally professional research, the terms `` yoke '' and `` yolk '' homophones! And slow storage while combining capacity follows E and is followed by do not have a silent J marijuana... K being mispronounced or not pronounced and gradually eliminated follows a and is by! To ensure that we give you the best experience on our, ahem, totally professional research, the in! Folk, half, chalk has a voiced & quot ; L & quot ; L & ;. Letter H doesnt seem to be silent in many words like walk, talk, calm folk... Lvocalization '' have taken the day off 's life '' an idiom with limited variations or you..., pillar etc reheating the remaining cream mine and fellow bass was pronouncing the L //... Much at all in the comment section of syllables this came up in the Middle the.: tk 2 syllables: TAK + oh or less, but not is the l silent in yolk the comment section times still. The term `` yoke '' and `` yolk '' are homophones or maybe not, based on our website used... Can now properly pronounce almond either with or without the L was until!