# Silent 'l' in 'folk' and 'yolk'? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 2, 2006, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-l-in-folk-and-yolk/359198 "2006-06-02T20:59:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2015, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-l-in-folk-and-yolk/359198/61 "2015-02-06T15:31:29Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > North-eastern UK perspective > > cork, walk, talk, caulk, hawk, lawk(s!) also rhyme Cork? I’m sorry, I’m all for live and let live, but that’s just wrong. It sounds nothing like those other words. Also, not sure what “lawk” is. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2015, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-l-in-folk-and-yolk/359198/62 "2015-02-06T15:43:46Z")
> [@CurtC](#): > > Also, not sure what “lawk” is. [Lawks!](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lawks) > [@](#): > > (_UK, dialectal_) **Lord!** (especially as an expression of surprise) > > This is a stereotypical utterance of a Cockney house-servant in literature, particularly 19th-century and early 20th-century literature, but by the end of the 20th century its use had become primarily ironic outside of historical fiction. Example: **Bambi:** Who said ‘Lawks-a-lordy, my bottom’s on fire’? **Kendal Mintcake:** [buzzing in] Lenin! **Bambi:** Yes, well I can accept that, though the exact answer was Joan of Arc. ---
**Author:** ![Pai325](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Pai325](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pai325)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2015, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-l-in-folk-and-yolk/359198/63 "2015-02-06T16:24:01Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Not for me. One would know whether I was talking about the yellow part of an egg, or the thing a pilot controls an airplane with. I’m the same. It’s not as much of an l as when I pronounce folder, but it’s there. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2015, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-l-in-folk-and-yolk/359198/64 "2015-02-06T17:19:09Z")
> [@Q.E.D](#): > > Yes. The pronunciation guides for [yolk](http://www.answers.com/yolk&r=67) and [folk](http://www.answers.com/folk&r=67) don’t even give an option otherwise. It’s always yōk and fōk. > **[Definition of YOLK](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/yolk)** > > the yellow spheroidal mass of stored food that forms the inner portion of the egg of a bird or reptile and is surrounded by the white; the whole contents of an animal ovum consisting of a protoplasmic formative portion and an inert nutritive portion…... begs to differ. ---
**Author:** ![crucible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@crucible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crucible)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2015, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-l-in-folk-and-yolk/359198/65 "2015-02-06T17:28:46Z")
if someone said ‘yoke’ of an egg, I’d be thinking they were making fun of the egg. I’ve always heard the ‘l’ in it, always said the ‘l’ in it, too. What the ‘l’, I always say. Try ‘caulk’ and ‘chalk’? callk…chok. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2015, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-l-in-folk-and-yolk/359198/66 "2015-02-06T17:29:32Z")
> [@CurtC](#): > > Cork? I’m sorry, I’m all for live and let live, but that’s just wrong. It sounds nothing like those other words. For you perhaps not, for me and (I just checked) my wife at least, it certainly does. ---
**Author:** ![missred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/missred/32/14096_2.png) [@missred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missred)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2015, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-l-in-folk-and-yolk/359198/67 "2015-02-06T18:06:01Z")
For me, folk and yolk both have elided _l_s, making the _o_ pretty close to being a dipthong and the words more than one syllable but not quite two. My accent is Great Lakes-midwestern / Appalachian-southern USA. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2015, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-l-in-folk-and-yolk/359198/68 "2015-02-06T18:45:09Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > As for the OP, I consider there to be a partial “L” pronounced in “folk”. Maybe 25 -50% of the sound. Folk and Poke rhyme, more or less, but they are not pronounced quite the same, for me. Certainly the German cognate, “volk” has a voiced “L”. For instance, to say “foke music” almost sounds like “fake music” rather than “folk music”. > > “Yolk” otoh, has a silent “L”, such that YOLK and YOKE are pronounced the same. And, at least for the purposes of cute songs in popular entertainment, so is the “l” in “folk”… > [@](#): > > ``` > Some folk'll never eat a skunk, > But then again, some folk'll > Like Cletus the Slack-Jawed Yokel! > > ``` [http://simpsons.wikia.com/wiki/Cletus\_The\_Slack-Jawed\_Yokel](http://simpsons.wikia.com/wiki/Cletus_The_Slack-Jawed_Yokel)! Note the rhyme (not slant rhyme) of “folk” and the first syllable of “yokel”. “Folk” and “yoke” are a rhyme in that. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2015, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-l-in-folk-and-yolk/359198/69 "2015-02-06T19:18:02Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > For you perhaps not, for me and (I just checked) my wife at least, it certainly does. “Cork” and “walk” would be pretty similar sounding in parts of New England and maybe in some Souther US regions, too. You wouldn’t think New Englanders and Southerners had much in common, but they do dislike those Rs! ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2015, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-l-in-folk-and-yolk/359198/70 "2015-02-06T19:24:47Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > “Cork” and “walk” would be pretty similar sounding in parts of New England and maybe in some Souther US regions, too. You wouldn’t think New Englanders and Southerners had much in common, but they do dislike those Rs! And in some of the flyover states, ‘wash’ and ‘marsh’ rhyme. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2015, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-l-in-folk-and-yolk/359198/71 "2015-02-06T20:15:36Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > “Cork” and “walk” would be pretty similar sounding in parts of New England and maybe in some Souther US regions, too. You wouldn’t think New Englanders and Southerners had much in common, but they do dislike those Rs! I recall a very short-lived TV series in the early '70s that involved an old man and and old woman meeting in the park, where he said something to the effect that he had aged like a fine wine and she replied that he best keep his cork in, and the got the middling pronunciation just close enough to get it past the censors. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2015, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-l-in-folk-and-yolk/359198/72 "2015-02-06T23:45:47Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > In fact, “Baulk” and “Polk” would also rhyme for me. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Loch\_Raven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/779978/32.png) [@Loch\_Raven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loch_Raven)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2015, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-l-in-folk-and-yolk/359198/73 "2015-02-07T00:50:00Z")
Baltimore native here. We leave out the Ls in quite a few words: yoke, foke, Sherlock Homes, poke-a dots… Very occasionally you will hear an old-timer talk about “Odesmobile” cars… Famous Orioles pitcher Jim Pommer…on the mound on a cahm, windless day… 'n I could gayo oown and oown, Hon. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2015, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-l-in-folk-and-yolk/359198/74 "2015-02-07T00:53:17Z")
Whoa, whoa, whoa. I pronounce the L in Holmes. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2015, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-l-in-folk-and-yolk/359198/75 "2015-02-07T04:40:25Z")
> [@fishbicycle](#): > > Given more time to think about it, despite how they pronounced “Norfolk” where I grew up, I say “foke” and “yoke”. See, Norfolk I would pronounce “NORfuhck”. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2015, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-l-in-folk-and-yolk/359198/76 "2015-02-07T05:55:37Z")
> [@ALOHA\_HATER](#): > > What are you trying to pull? Exactly nobody pronounces the l in yolk. Folk either way, but the positioning of the tongue (coming from the yo-) makes a phonetic pronunciation of yolk not just unconventional but really difficult to utter. I say the “l” in “yolk.” Always have. Same with “folk.” It wasn’t until I think when I first read this thread that I realized many/most people don’t. I’m not sure how saying “yolk” is any more difficult than saying “folk.” They’re equally natural for me. ETA: If you look at pretty much any American dictionary, you’ll find both the “l” less and the “l” pronunciation listed for “yolk,” wheras “folk” generally only has the “l”-less pronunciation listed. So enough people pronounce the “l” in “yolk” that it’s reflected in the dictionary. (And apparently, not enough do for “folk” for it to make it.) ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2015, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-l-in-folk-and-yolk/359198/77 "2015-02-07T09:31:17Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > 😕 What’s confusing? Baulk is a common enough word in the UK due to snooker (and is pronounced “bolk” )and “polk” is far less common but the nearest equivalent is polka and that’s where I’d take my pronunciation cue. So that’s why they are pronounced the same. ---
**Author:** ![Cugel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cugel/32/1199_2.png) [@Cugel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cugel)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2015, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-l-in-folk-and-yolk/359198/78 "2015-02-07T09:58:46Z")
> [@ALOHA\_HATER](#): > > but the positioning of the tongue (coming from the yo-) makes a phonetic pronunciation of yolk not just unconventional but really difficult to utter. I can manage it by rhyming it with bulk and hulk. But that makes a very different sounding word, as it loses the yo sound. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2015, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-l-in-folk-and-yolk/359198/79 "2015-02-07T10:53:20Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Whoa, whoa, whoa. I pronounce the L in Holmes. Holmes doesn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aji_de_gallina/32/260_2.png) [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aji_de_Gallina)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2015, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-l-in-folk-and-yolk/359198/80 "2015-02-07T11:19:41Z")
FWIW. My English accent (I learn the core of my English in primary school with Philadelphia-born nuns) is folk = foke, yolk = yoke also Polk = poke, chalk = choke. Also, you need a gun to all my family’s head befores I pronounce the t in often. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-l-in-folk-and-yolk/359198.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-l-in-folk-and-yolk/359198.md?page=5)