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Do *you* pronounce the L in SOLDER ? (In the USA?)
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Siwastaja:
Before tooki chimes in, a quick tldr "in a nutshell", if I remember the earlier discussions right, American English [sodder] is closer to the French origin "souder", without the L sound. This is not surprising; American English has evolved different paths from British English, after it got "frozen" some hundreds of years ago. The idea that current British English is somehow more "original" than current American English, is logically weird.
xrunner:
Oh no - not this again ...  :palm:
pdenisowski:

--- Quote from: Siwastaja on December 20, 2022, 01:08:30 pm ---American English [sodder] is closer to the French origin "souder", without the L sound. This is not surprising; American English has evolved different paths from British English, after it got "frozen" some hundreds of years ago. The idea that current British English is somehow more "original" than current American English, is logically weird.

--- End quote ---

An interesting note from the OED (Oxford English Dictionary), referenced by etymology.com:

The -l- typically is sounded in British English but not in American, according to OED, but Fowler wrote that solder without the "l" was "The only pronunciation I have ever heard, except from the half-educated to whom spelling is a final court of appeal ..." and was baffled by the OED's statement that it was American.

So one of the co-authors of the classic "Modern English Usage" says that as far back as the late 1800s, the "educated" pronunciation of "solder" in Britain did not include the "L" 

Again, speaking as someone who made a living (well, such that it was) for many years in languages / linguistics: the most likely explanation, and the one supported by Fowler, is that the "L" was added by people who looked at the spelling and decided that they should pronounce the "L".   

And from the OP's comment, it appears that this is happening again in the 21st century:  the "L-pronunciation" is being used because people are imitating what they hear a handful of YouTubers saying versus what the vast majority of professionals (whom they will never meet in person) typically say.
mcovington:

--- Quote from: ebastler on December 20, 2022, 07:40:55 am ---Since I deal with US colleagues a lot on the job (but rarely discussing electronics), I am curious: In the common US pronounciation, is the 'L' suppressed in all forms of the word? E.g. would you say "soddering iron" too?

--- End quote ---

Yes.  That is the normal American pronunciation.

The only reason I asked my question was to inquire about whether the L pronunciation is starting to pop up in America.  Apparently so, and the obvious reason is spelling pronunciation (that is, people want to pronounce the word the way it is spelled) together with YouTube suddenly enabling us to hear the word pronounced by people from elsewhere (many of them outside the USA).   I did find one person on another forum for whom the L pronunciation had been normal, in Savannah, Georgia, since at least the 1970s.

The quote from Fowler (just above) is interesting.  We know that the L originally was *not* pronounced when this word came into English.  The history is:
(1) English borrows the French word 'souder' and pronounces it 'sodder'
(2) Spelling is changed to 'solder' on the basis of the Latin etymology (solidare)
(3) Pronunciation adds the L because of influence from the spelling.
Fowler must have observed British English before step (3) had run to completion over there.  Step (3) never took place in America -- or so I thought -- but it seems to be doing it now.
Stray Electron:

--- Quote from: ebastler on December 20, 2022, 07:40:55 am ---Since I deal with US colleagues a lot on the job (but rarely discussing electronics), I am curious: In the common US pronounciation, is the 'L' suppressed in all forms of the word? E.g. would you say "soddering iron" too?

--- End quote ---

  Yes,  and FWIW I've been using one for about 65 years now and all over the US and in Canada and a couple of other (non-European) countries and I have never heard it pronounced differently. Even the Brit from BA that I used to work with pronounced it "Sodder".

   "Sodder" Pot, "Sodder Paste", "Sodder Gun" and "Sodder" Sucker are four other common phrases and pronunciations.  Oh and add "wave Sodder machine" and "wave Sodder" (verb)  to the list.  We always spell it with an "L" but it's never pronounced.

    And I forgot "Silver Sodder" (both a noun and a verb).

   YMMV,
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