Date: Fri, 27 Oct 1995 11:03:33 EDT
From: Larry Horn LHORN[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]YALEVM.CIS.YALE.EDU
Subject: Re: folk/folklore
Like Natalie, I don't pronounce the first syllable of 'folklore' differently
from the way I pronounce 'folk' (and I also wondered whether there might be
some anticipation of/assimilation to the L of the next syllable, but from what
Wayne says that's not the case for him, given the way the L of folk reappears
in other compounds). The [fok] pronunciation I have in all of those is clearly
a lexical and not just a low-level phonetic matter, since I standardly refer to
the cars as VoLkswagens and not [vok]swagens (or not necessarily, anyway: I
imagine the L might indeed disappear in fast speech, but the L of 'folk',
'folklore' doesn't appear now matter how much I slow down. I have a feeling
there's also an L in Folkestone, if I ever had the occasion to say it.
Larry