Yes, that's consistent with a number of us who report operating with* a

regular distinction between non-back vowels, after which the L is pronounced

([I] as in milk and film, [E] as in elm, [AE] as in talc (= talcum) and calc

(= calculus), and schwa as in hulk and sulk) and (some) back vowels, after

which it isn't (open o as in balk and talk, [a] as in balm and calm). For me,

as mentioned, [o] sometimes wipes out the following L (as in the 'folk' words

and 'yolk') and sometimes doesn't (Polk, Volks(wagen), Tolk ['Tolkien groupie']

and so on).



Larry



*at least in my case; I probably shouldn't generalize