I have been watching some Make magazine vodcasts over the last few weeks and I was appalled at how everyone appears to pronounce the word “solder”. As I have been very close to solder over much of my life it has a special attraction for me.
So it appears that, some at least, of our American Cousins pronounce the word as “sod-er” as opposed to the correct “sole - der”
How do you pronounce it?
As Churchill said:-
“Two peoples separated by a common language”
Excellent, I didn’t think of looking that up in that way.
You see to an English ear it does sound more like “sod her” which is what many a disappointed lad says at the end of an unsuccessful night on the pull.
I say “saw-der” when saying “soldering iron” but I say “sold-er” when saying “solder”. I was raised in the south, so I say it like “saw-der” more often, though.
Gee, I don’t know . . . “talk,” “walk,” “half,”, “calf”
Maybe we should ask the Colonel?
Just because there are a few examples of silent “L” doesn’t mean ALL of them are…
Also I would pronounce the L to some extent in all of those words… they certainly don’t sound the same as if the L wasn’t there at all, which is the case with the solder/sodder argument.
I put my soldering iron in it’s hoLder, not it’s hodder.
Anyways I’m happy for everyone to pronounce it however they want, just interested in how the L became silent
Are the syllables in English separated like that? In German you would separate them like “sol- der”, like in “sol- dat” (german word for soldier).
Perhaps from an linguistic kind of view there once was an “ou” like in “boulder” or “shoulder”?
Someone who knows around here?
saw-der, no L’s round here. Someone who was completely removed from the field of electronics would still attempt to read it as written and say sold-er.