Chris, my son, has always loved testing me with new things he has learned to see if I know them too.
Often, we have a good conversation about the subject after I tell him that I already knew what he just learned. It’s fun to watch the look on his face as he comes to a new understanding of something as his mind grows.
Slowly, though, I began to see the whole picture. To give my son an education was to expose my own lapses in knowledge.
In particular, he liked to point out any grammatical errors. If I misspoke, mispronounced something or used a wrong verb tense, my son would announce, “Incorrect grammar. ”.
Take, for instance, the word salmon. Like those around me, I grew up pronouncing the L in salmon.
My mother would fry salmon patties in the frying pan for us. As kids, we would use ketchup (another annoying word) to make smiley faces on our food before we ate it. I was familiar with the fish and the word.
Salmon is one of those words in English that trips people up when it comes to pronunciation You’ll often hear people pronounce it both ways – with the ‘l’ sounded out, and with the ‘l’ silent. So which is correct? As an English language enthusiast, I was curious to get to the bottom of this mystery.
The short answer is that the standard pronunciation of salmon does not include pronouncing the ‘l’. While you may sometimes hear people say ‘sal-mon’, the more common and accepted pronunciation is ‘sam-on’.
Now let’s look at why this is the case. The word salmon originally comes from the Latin word salmo. When the word entered the French language, the French did something very typical – they dropped the ‘l’ sound in their pronunciation. So in French, it was pronounced ‘saumon’.
Later on, when English borrowed the word from French, we initially took on the French pronunciation without the ‘l’. Makes sense, since that’s how we heard the French saying it!
But then something interesting happened In the Renaissance period, there was a trend of wanting to restore Latin origins and spellings to English words This gave us a lot of our silent letters, as scribes and scholars started adding in letters that weren’t pronounced to reflect Latin roots.
And that’s exactly what happened with salmon Even though the ‘l’ was silent in how the word was actually pronounced, the spelling with the ‘l’ was restored to reflect the Latin salmo
So in written form, salmon had an ‘l’, but in spoken form most English speakers carried on without pronouncing it. The ‘l’ became silent!
Today, this is still the predominant pronunciation in both British and American English. Most English speakers continue to say ‘sam-on’.
However, with the spelling salmon now containing that ‘l’, some people have started to pronounce it. This demonstrates the influence that written language can have over time on how words are said. Seeing that ‘l’ over and over again in salmon has led more folks to start sounding it out.
But overall, the silent ‘l’ remains the standard. English has always been an eccentric language, full of oddities like this. It’s not just salmon that we don’t say certain letters in. Other words like calm, walk, and talk are also like this.
I find exploring the twists and turns in the history and evolution of words to be so interesting! It gives you insight into how influential factors like borrowing from other languages, spelling trends, and the interplay between written and spoken language all come together to shape our quirky English pronunciations.
So next time you’re serving up a delicious salmon fillet for dinner, remember that the standard pronunciation still keeps that ‘l’ nice and quiet. But if you want to sound out the ‘l’ in salmon, you certainly wouldn’t be alone! The most important thing is that you can now explain why salmon creates such pronunciation confusion.
Frequency of Entities:
salmon: 14
English: 7
pronunciation: 6
Latin: 3
French: 3
silent: 3
language: 3
spelling: 3
pronounced: 2
origin: 2
interesting: 2
pronounce: 2
standard: 2
history: 2
evolve: 1
eccentric: 1
borrowing: 1
influential: 1
interplay: 1
written: 1
spoken: 1
restore: 1
Renaissance: 1
scribes: 1
scholars: 1
letters: 1
roots: 1
British: 1
American: 1
see: 1
say: 1
sound: 1
good company: 1
calm: 1
walk: 1
talk: 1
letters: 1
twists: 1
turns: 1
shape: 1
trend: 1
quirky: 1
insight: 1
factor: 1
remember: 1
quiet: 1
alone: 1
important: 1
explain: 1
confusion: 1
linguistic: 1
everyday: 1
happy: 1
dive: 1
question: 1
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When I said the word “salmon” wrong, my son came up to me with a “know-it-all” grin and his dictionary open. He pointed out that the L was actually silent. He probably didn’t mean any harm, but I’m sure it made him feel good to crush my pride with what he thought he knew.
After that, we watched some nature shows on TV, and all of them talked about salmon in some way. Each time, the narrator would pronounce the word with a silent L. It was enough to drive me batty. My teenage son just grinned at me.
I finally had enough. I told him to go get his dictionary. I opened it and found the word salmon. I looked at the pronunciation provided. I looked up the word at the Merriam-Webster Web site.
The website has a pronunciation guide with sound files. Once more, I heard the word salmon said without the L sound.
With a grin that was also a little serious, I said that no matter what, our family would say the L in salmon.
I took his dictionary and made some changes to it in pen to match how our family would say this word. He could no longer use his dictionary against me with this word.
Upon further investigation, it appears I am not alone in how I prefer to pronounce the word salmon.
I found an unofficial poll online that said 86% of people pronounced salmon with a silent L and 14% pronounced it the way it looks, by sounding out the L.
Apparently, a couple of centuries ago, the word salmon was spelled samoun in the English language. There was no L in the word, and so the word was pronounced as it appeared.
About that time, some people were rallying for words to reflect their Latin origins. Salmon was one of those words. In Latin, the word for fish is salmo, and the L is pronounced. The English word was spelled differently, from samoun to salmon, but it was still pronounced the same, so the L sound was lost.
There is no rule that says we should say the letter “L” in salmon, but we can say it in Salmonella.
It’s easy to see why people say English is hard to learn if it’s not your first language. Some of us who speak English as our first language still get confused sometimes when we try to remember the rules of correct speech and spelling.
Nevertheless, I have a hard time changing how I say the word. To say it without pronouncing the L just doesn’t sound right. It sounds like a foreign language to me. No matter how badly I use grammar, salmon will always be served with an L that I say, even if it makes my son laugh.
Linda Vestal is a wife, mother, daughter, sister and friend living in Gibsonville. Contact her with comments or story ideas at lindavestal@triad. rr. com.
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Chris, my son, has always loved testing me with new things he has learned to see if I know them too.
Often, we have a good conversation about the subject after I tell him that I already knew what he just learned. It’s fun to watch the look on his face as he comes to a new understanding of something as his mind grows.
Slowly, though, I began to see the whole picture. To give my son an education was to expose my own lapses in knowledge.
In particular, he liked to point out any grammatical errors. If I misspoke, mispronounced something or used a wrong verb tense, my son would announce, “Incorrect grammar. ”.
Take, for instance, the word salmon. Like those around me, I grew up pronouncing the L in salmon.
My mother would fry salmon patties in the frying pan for us. As kids, we would use ketchup (another annoying word) to make smiley faces on our food before we ate it. I was familiar with the fish and the word.
Why does Salmon have a silent L?
FAQ
What is the silent word in salmon?
Why does salmon have L?
How do you pronounce salmon?
The word salmon is spelled s-a-l-m-o-n, but is pronounced salmon. Small pronunciation errors like saying a silent letter are usually passed over by listeners. Saying a letter that should be silent doesn’t usually interfere with communication, so it’s really not a very big deal.
Is the L silent in the word salmon?
She wanted to demonstrate how nice and clear her l sound had become since taking lessons. Unfortunately, she did say the l sound perfectly, and was then told by her boss that the l is silent in the word salmon. (Now,) the word salmon isn’t a very high-frequency word, so I don’t usually cover it in class with my students.
Why does the word ‘salmon’ have a l sound?
This change could be due to the French influence on the English language, as well as the evolution of language over time. Some people argue that because the word “salmon” has a history of including the “l” sound, it should be pronounced that way.
Do we pronounce the ‘L’ in salmon?
As a former journalist there are few things I like more than a fishy grammar query, although the answer to this one is relatively short: no, we don’t pronounce the ‘l’ in salmon. Salmon is pronounced sammon, so the ‘l’ is not pronounced and is effectively silent.