I've been looking at this from the perspective of how spelling influences pronunciations or at least perceptions of how words should be pronounced. I've used a written questionnaire to gather self reports on usage. The question I use for /l/ is:
"In words such as walk and could the letter l is usually silent, but it is usually pronounced in some other words such as hold and pals. Which of the following words have a pronounced l as you say them? Circle those in which the l is sounded and leave blank those with a silent l."
And the choices are:
elbow palm corn-stalk golf folk help egg-yolk calm wolf
Here are some recent results for each of the listed words (% = those claiming to pronounce the /l/; total n= 1577 respondents):
elbow 97%
help 92%
golf 83%
calm 75%
palm 69%
wolf 52%
folk 49%
stalk 28%
yolk 17%
All these respondents are native Missourians (central USA). I haven't looked at it in apparent time or for any regional patterns within the state. I've interpreted it as a spelling pronunciation that is pretty common in this part of the country and probably elsewhere. However, I also believe that some people report pronouncing an /l/ in at least some words because of an ideology that spelling should guide pronunciation. I really doubt, for example, that 28% of the people surveyed really do pronounce 'stalk' with an /l/ but they'll claim they do on a pronunciation survey. Still, the higher numbers for 'calm' 'palm' etc. are closer to phonetic reality. I know from teaching phonetics that many Americans do have /l/ in these words.
-Matt Gordon
________________________________________
From: Variationist List [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Aaron Dinkin [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Monday, April 11, 2011 4:19 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Calm, palm, etc.?
Is anyone aware of any research they could point me toward on the
pronunciation of words like "calm" and "palm" with a /l/? (I assume this
is spelling pronunciation, but it just might be a parallel preservation of
an archaic form.) Geographic distribution of the /l/, whether it affects
all relevant words, anything like that?
-Aaron J. Dinkin
Dr. Whom
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