Solder or Soder (silent L)

Thread Starter

spinnaker

Joined Oct 29, 2009
7,830
So is it solder or soder with a silent L. All of my life (and it has been a long life ;) ) I thought it was soder with a silent L. It has only been the last yer or so where I have heard people pronouncing the l. In fact in a recent video I viewed, the author of the video (at least seemed) to pronounce it both ways several times in the same video.

So is it solder or soder? Is my hearing that bad that often I don't hear the l?
 

Thread Starter

spinnaker

Joined Oct 29, 2009
7,830
I guess it would really be sodder. But OK then. Americans (at least) don't pronounce the l?

Or get the L out of there! ;)
 

ebp

Joined Feb 8, 2018
2,332
You may make boatswain yet. But do you know how to rig a studding sail?

The English say solder with an L, but drop a vowel from medicine and a whole syllable from library. Actually, the English say solduh, what with their lost ability to pronounce most Rs.

From the always instructive The Threepenny Opera

and tying in sails and pirates (also TpO)
Seeräuber Jenny

If anyone is interested, the restored version of The Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper) released by Criterion is a huge improvement over older releases.
 

profbuxton

Joined Feb 21, 2014
421
Agreed, dendad, in the English speaking world its SOLDER. It always make me cringe when I hear Americans are "sodering" wires. I could never understand how they came to drop the "L".
Listen up you Yanks! its SOLDER.
 

BobaMosfet

Joined Jul 1, 2009
2,110
So is it solder or soder with a silent L. All of my life (and it has been a long life ;) ) I thought it was soder with a silent L. It has only been the last yer or so where I have heard people pronouncing the l. In fact in a recent video I viewed, the author of the video (at least seemed) to pronounce it both ways several times in the same video.

So is it solder or soder? Is my hearing that bad that often I don't hear the l?
This is an etymological question. Solder comes from both Latin and french, newer and older, words meaning to 'fasten together'. In Latin you might have 'solidare' and in Old French 'Soudure'. American's mishmashed it to 'solder'. L is silent, but not quite. That's why the 'o' is pronounced more like a mix between 'sodd' and 'saud'. To fully compare the subtitles of the 'L', you'd have to appreciate distinctions in how 'r' is pronounced in french that are so subtle as to really only be meaningful in fluent French or native French.
 
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