For most of my life, I’ve pronounced “almond” as “ammond” - close to rhyming with “salmon” and, say, “jammin’”. However I must admit that TV commercials for “Almond Joy” pronounce it “All-mund”. As, apparently, do just about all my acquaintances. I know I exhibit any number of regional dialectal pronunciations from having grown up in Queens, NY, including a few that were educated out of me but have come back later in life due to drinking copious amounts of alcohol with similarly accented people :). But on this one, it looks like I’m all alone in my crowd of friends. I’ve just polled about 10 different people and they all look at me like I’m from Mars for saying what sounds like “ammins” when I tell them to try one of the bite-sized assorted Snickers bars I have in a bag that are “with almonds”.
I dimly remember being “corrected” from “all-mund” to say “ammond” in a way that rhymes with “salmon”. But I don’t remember by who, when or where. It may have been another kid from another part of the country who first used the word in conversation with me, as I didn’t exactly grow up eating or talking about almonds - someone I met on a trip somewhere and he offered me a few out of a bag he was eating. That feels right, though I have no other specifics about this in mind.
Anyway - assuming that is the scenario I’m dealing with here, that I picked up somebody’s dialectical pronunciation of “almond” when introduced to the (spoken) word at some point early in my life - where would this putative funny-talking kid be from, who infected me with this quirk?
Here in the UK (brought up in the SE), I have always pronounced it arl-mund, however listening to others the most common pronunciation I hear is al-mund. I’ve never heard the “L” not pronounced here.
I’m going to go with northern California too. My uncle is from there and he’s the only person I’ve ever heard pronounce it ammond or ammon. Ive always said ALLmund myself.
I live in the UK and always say ah-mund. It tends to be so pronounced by older people (I’m 60) as it used to be standard years ago, as balm (bahm), alms (ahms), falcon (faw-con) and others.
Central Valley. If you say Northern California, most people think of the coast, and this is definitely a Central Valley thing. Not sure how far south it extends, but it doesn’t make it over the Diablo range. You could go with Sacramento Valley, maybe.
The “l” in “almond” is not pronounced, just as it is not pronounced in “alms,” “palm,” “calm,” “balm,” “psalm,” “walk,” and “talk.”
Of course, the vowel sound I use is “aw,” not the “a” in “Sam.” So, not “am-mond,” but “aw-mond.” Just as I don’t say “ams” or “pam” or “cam” or “tak,” but “awms,” “pawm,” “cawm,” or “tawk.”
So your acquaintances may be less surprised that you don’t pronounce the “l”–which is the traditional pronunciation–but rather the weird, strangulated vowel you use.
That’s funny because I do pronounce the L in alms, palm, calm, and psalm, but not in walk or talk. In keeping with that, I also say the L in almond. I grew up in the Midwest, not sure if that has anything to do with it.
Nah. I left the UK twelve years ago and it was in full swing then. More likely it is regional and the BBC’s increase in using regional presenters has had an effect.
Northern California is a big place. Most people in most places in Northern California do not pronounce it that way. As I already noted, this is a Sacramento Valley thing. And even then, it may only be localized to the farming parts.