I occasionally watch DIY/ home workshop videos on Youtube, and have always been intrigued by the way American artisans pronounce “solder” as “sodder”.
In the UK , anyone who said “I am going to sodder these terminals together” would be looked at askance (or worse). Over here we pronounce the “l”, so it sounds like “sold-her”.
I am sure that the multi-national membership of TSD will be able to elucidate one way or another whether the US pronunciation is accepted world-wide, or whether the Brit pronunciation is more common.
Maybe some countries follow the US example and others follow the UK … I will be interested to find out.
If anybody could explain WHY Americans don’t pronounce the “l” in solder, well, that would be a bonus …
I am hoping that some Canadian, Oz, African etc members will chip in and reveal what their preferred pronunciation is, as well as anyone for whom English is a second language.
No but the etymological history of shoulder vis-a-vis modern english has always retained an -l- sound there. Solder, on the other hand, was soudur in middle english for a long time and the -l- returned in a period of latinate fanaticism (latinaticism) during the 15th century.
edit: I say sawder or sodder as I have that particular vowel merger. I said solder with the L once as a sophomore in college and was promptly laughed out of the scene shop.
No more than you would mention using Wor-ces-tir-shire sauce on your sal-is-bury steak while dining in Lei-ces-ter before boarding a train to Glou-ces-tir via Lan-cas-ter-shire.