It's "sodder", not "soLder", damnit! (for us USAians)

[Zero999]

'Buoy' is pronounced 'boy', innit?

Nope; "boo-ee" here in N. America.

That's odd. I've never heard anyone pronounce buoy like that. How do you say: buoyant and buoyancy? Is it boo-ee ant and boo ee n see?

Speaking as someone who was once a PhD student in Linguistics:  the question is really "why do people in the UK pronounce it "soLder?" 

It's very common to have a "silent l" (so to speak) before oral stops (b, p, t, d, g, k) in English.  Think about words like "would, could, walk, talk, yolk, etc."  The "l" in all of these words is not normally pronounced.  By analogy, no one should be surprised that "solder" is pronounced as "sodder"

This is the bit that puzzles me. In my (British) accent, I pronounce solder in a way somewhat similar to words like walk and talk that you mention. The main difference from the USA is that I use the soul vowel sound rather than the hot vowel sound. So my pronunciation of solder is somewhat akin to sou(l)der (where the L glides into the D and mostly disappears). In fact, the same vowel sound I would us in the word "fold", which also has a similarly silent L. For me, folder and solder both rhyme, and both have something between a dark L and a silent L.

I think a lot of people imagine the L sound to be present, when it isn't really there.

What do you mean by the soul and hot vowel sounds? I pronounce the o the same in hot and soul. Do you pronounce soul as so-well and solder as so -lder? I've heard those variations before but I believe they're not widespread.

[IanB]

What do you mean by the soul and hot vowel sounds? I pronounce the o the same in hot and soul. Do you pronounce soul as so-well and solder as so -lder? I've heard those variations before but I believe they're not widespread.

I mean as they sound in Standard Southern British:

Hot: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/pronunciation/english/hot

Soul: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/pronunciation/english/soul

(Listen to the UK pronunciations)

Digression:

When my baby brother was learning to speak, he was saying "dight" instead of "light".

The way we make the "D" sound and the way we make the "L" sound are remarkably similar. In both cases the tip of the tongue curls up and touches the roof of the mouth at the front, behind the teeth, and we voice the sound.

So if we now try to voice the consonant pair "LD", it is nearly impossible. The "L" part of the sound is swallowed by the "D" sound.

Try an experiment:

In a British accent, card has an "ah" vowel: "c-ah-d".

Code has an "oh" vowel: "c-oh-d".

Soul has an "ou" vowel: "s-ou-l".

With a listening volunteer, say the following sounds and ask them what word they hear:

"c-ah-d" ?
"c-oh-d" ?
"c-ou-d" ?

[TimFox]

Park the car in Harvard Yard.

[IanB]

What do you mean by the soul and hot vowel sounds? I pronounce the o the same in hot and soul. Do you pronounce soul as so-well and solder as so -lder? I've heard those variations before but I believe they're not widespread.

For me, hot rhymes with what and bot.

Soul rhymes with coal and hole.

[themadhippy]

So if we now try to voice the consonant pair "LD", it is nearly impossible

is it?  its a fairly common phrase in the world of entertainment,its  the lazy way of saying lighting designer

[Analog Kid]

Wut, are you seriously arguing that everybody should pronounce things the way you do? Really?

Honestly Im fine as long as you call it "American English". 

Fine, then just be sure to call your version of it "British English".

Sheesh. The air here is thick with provincialism ...

[Analog Kid]

'Buoy' is pronounced 'boy', innit?

Nope; "boo-ee" here in N. America.

That's odd. I've never heard anyone pronounce buoy like that.

Really? That's how just about all of us pronounce it over heah.

How do you say: buoyant and buoyancy? Is it boo-ee ant and boo ee n see?

Nope, doesn't follow: it's "boy-ent" and "boy-en-see".
Don't ask me why those are different ...

[Monkeh]

Wut, are you seriously arguing that everybody should pronounce things the way you do? Really?

Honestly Im fine as long as you call it "American English". 

Fine, then just be sure to call your version of it "British English".

Why? "English" is already an adequate descriptor for a language from England.

Do we need to have "French French"?

[brucehoult]

Again, this must be a Northern Irish thing. In all my years living in England I've never heard anyone pronounce it like that - never. It is always pronounced "yott".

Yes.  Yott or yaught.  The elongated yawt is how "posh" people try and make it sound posh.  You know the sort I mean.

With their Jaaaaag.

You have to say Jaaaaaaaag. It's the law.

I came this > < close to buying a used Jaaaaaag when I moved to the US in 2019. My boss had been lending it to me on my 3-monthly visits while waiting the the H-1B and said he'd sell it for $2000.

It looked sexy and drove very nicely, so I kind of thought it should be fine since it was really an AWD Mondeo under the skin, but I took it to a mechanic and they said it urgently needed $10k of work. Ugh.

But ... Jaaaaaaaaag!

[negativ3]

Shaguar.

[Analog Kid]

Wut, are you seriously arguing that everybody should pronounce things the way you do? Really?

Honestly Im fine as long as you call it "American English". 

Fine, then just be sure to call your version of it "British English".

Why? "English" is already an adequate descriptor for a language from England.

As it is for the language spoken here in the U.S.

Unless you have some problem with that.

[Analog Kid]

Shaguar.

I thought it was more like "jag-yOOOOO-ar".

Really the only thing that I cannot stand is a Brit trying to pronounce "Nicaragua".
They emit the most horrendous, tortured sounds possible in the process.

[negativ3]

Shaguar.

I thought it was more like "jag-yOOOOO-ar".

Really the only thing that I cannot stand is a Brit trying to pronounce "Nicaragua".
They emit the most horrendous, tortured sounds possible in the process.

Non-Brits trying "Edinburgh" is a source of fleetingly brief amusement.

[Analog Kid]

Non-Brits trying "Edinburgh" is a source of fleetingly brief amusement.

I still don't understand: is it pronounced as it looks ("burg", which seems right to me), or is it "Edinborough" as I hear it so often said?

[Monkeh]

As it is for the language spoken here in the U.S.

Unless you have some problem with that.

Obviously, I do. Clearly there are distinct differences, and in order to clarify the distinction, the form not from England requires an additional descriptor. Again, unless you want to have French French, German German, and Spanish Spanish, there's no need to further clarify where English comes from.

[Analog Kid]

As it is for the language spoken here in the U.S.

Unless you have some problem with that.

Obviously, I do. Clearly there are distinct differences, and in order to clarify the distinction, the form not from England requires an additional descriptor. Again, unless you want to have French French, German German, and Spanish Spanish, there's no need to further clarify where English comes from.

Well, there is Castillian Spanish as distinct from what's spoken in Latin America, so apparently we already have those.

[negativ3]

Non-Brits trying "Edinburgh" is a source of fleetingly brief amusement.

I still don't understand: is it pronounced as it looks ("burg", which seems right to me), or is it "Edinborough" as I hear it so often said?

Edinbara is much closer to correct, phonetically.

[Monkeh]

As it is for the language spoken here in the U.S.

Unless you have some problem with that.

Obviously, I do. Clearly there are distinct differences, and in order to clarify the distinction, the form not from England requires an additional descriptor. Again, unless you want to have French French, German German, and Spanish Spanish, there's no need to further clarify where English comes from.

Well, there is Castillian Spanish as distinct from what's spoken in Latin America, so apparently we already have those.

And that's simply called Spanish, unless you're specifically differentiating between local dialects in Spain.

[Analog Kid]

Edinbara is much closer to correct, phonetically.

So how does "burgh" transmogrify into "bara"? Seems like there's an intrusive syllable there.

[IanB]

I still don't understand: is it pronounced as it looks ("burg", which seems right to me), or is it "Edinborough" as I hear it so often said?

It's neither. It's Edinbrə, sort of close to "Edinbruh" or "Edinbra".

[paulca]

I still don't understand: is it pronounced as it looks ("burg", which seems right to me), or is it "Edinborough" as I hear it so often said?

It's neither. It's Edinbrə, sort of close to "Edinbruh" or "Edinbra".

Thats what I say and it's what has been ranted to me by people from there.  Its "Bruh" no borough.   Ed-in-bru.

My English friend got the train from the airport to my house and the first she said was, "How the hell do you prounounce the half of that?"

I think she might have been caught by places like "Cultra".  Cul-traw.  Knocknagoney. 

On that train... for well over 10 years travelling to work every morning and home in the evenings and I had to listen to the recorded English southern voice say my town name wrong, twice for every stop.  "Bang Gor". Its the better version against "Banger".  or "Bang - Or"  or "Ban gor".  The G is pronounced twice - in both syllables and it's then rolled into two short syllables.  Bang'gor.  Just two short, tightly packed syllables.  Most people over pronounce it.  No accent on the "O" so its almost like an e.  Like if you said "Banger" but pronounced the G again in the 'er' sylluble.  Bang'ger.

You would think when they commissioned the voice recording they would have picked someone who could pronounce the station names.  My town was not the only one butchered.  "Cultra" got it too.

[SteveThackery]

Not everyone. And it's misleading when you say "pronounce the L". It's a dark L, and in the same way "dark matter" is so called because we can't see it, the "dark L" is so called because we can't hear it. It modifies the shape of the tongue which affects the sound of the vowel/consonant pair, but there is no actual L sound.

There may be some accents where people emphasise the L sound, but it is certainly not "everyone".

Nope, I emphatically do not accept that. Here in England, the 'l' is definitely audible in all the words I listed, with the exception of the London accent, where it is sometimes pronounced as a tight "ooo", or arguably a lengthened "w".

A "dark" 'l' is definitely not an inaudible 'l'. These words - all, fall and cool - all have a dark 'l', and in all of them the 'l' is entirely obvious and clearly audible.

The word "local" begins with a light 'l' and finishes with a dark 'l'. Both are clearly audible as an 'l'.

This explains it more fully:

https://www.learnenglishsounds.com/en/blog/dark-l-vs-light-l-english-pronunciation

Don't conflate light-'l' and dark-'l' with audible and inaudible.

[SteveThackery]

When I (jokingly) affect a non-American accent , I pronounce these like "bowda" and "showda"

What do you mean by a "non-American" accent? There are dozens, probably hundreds, of identifiable non-American accents, and not all of them say "bowda".

You might be interested to know that you have actually nailed the London* accent! I'll explain. In the traditional London accent, "oh" sounds, as in "boulder", tend to get wider, so they get closer to the vowel sound in "how now brown cow". Closer, but not all the way. The next bit is the 'l', which tends toward a tight "ooo" or elongated "w" sound.

Finally, the last vowel. In most of England we would pronounce "boulder" with a "duh" at the end. In London, it tends towards a "dah" sound.

So, in most of England, boulder is pronounced bow₁-l₂-duh₃.

1: "bow" to rhyme with bread dough
2: a dark (but not silent) 'l'
3: a short and fairly light "uh" sound

In London, it's more like:

1: "bow" gets wider - let's say half-way between "cow" and "dough"
2: the 'l' becomes "ooo"
3: a short "ah" sound

*I refer to a London accent, but sadly two-thirds of the population of London are not white British, which means the traditional London accent is in retreat. Also, there is the old Cockney accent. It sounds to most people like an exaggerated version of the traditional London accent, although I'm sure it's more complicated than that.

[Zero999]

What do you mean by the soul and hot vowel sounds? I pronounce the o the same in hot and soul. Do you pronounce soul as so-well and solder as so -lder? I've heard those variations before but I believe they're not widespread.

For me, hot rhymes with what and bot.

Soul rhymes with coal and hole.

That's interesting. At first I thought the O sounds similar to cot and coal, but then my pronunciation of the word col is subtly different to col.

[tooki]

How do you say: buoyant and buoyancy? Is it boo-ee ant and boo ee n see?

Nope, doesn't follow: it's "boy-ent" and "boy-en-see".

No it isn’t! It’s “bwoy-ent” and “bwoy-en-see”.