1935: The L of Almond Apr 2, 2020

Like the first R in 'February', people don't always pronounce the L in 'almond', but it is important historically. Italian, Greek, and Portuguese's words for it—'mandorla',  ἀμυγδάλη (amygdálē) and 'amêndoa' respectively—don't have the L, but the Spanish word 'almendra' does. It is believed for both the A- but especially the AL- prefix, this comes from the Arabic article 'al', i.e. 'the'. However, in many varieties, even where the L is still present, this is disappearing if it hasn't already.
Support Word Facts on patreon.com/wordfacts

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

1511: "I'll be home in 3 days; don't wash" Might be False Jan 31, 2019

1509: Right-to-Left Lyrics in Sheet Music Jan 29, 2019

681: termite Oct 19, 2016