Re: English Lesson: Monty Python

gadfyl@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 wrote:

> For example, you claim, "The letter 'l' is quite often silent."
> But in some of the examples you give, the 'l' is weakened to a 'w' 
> (psalm --> sawm, not sam).

What rubbish; it is purely a matter of accent. In British English, the "l"
in 
"psalm" is completely silent, serving only to lengthen the preceding "a", 
sounding like "aa" in "aardvark", much as the "r" does in the same word
when 
spoken by Brits.

I know Americans, probably due to Noah Webster's ideas on how language
should 
be taught, tend to pronounce "r"s fully, it is by no means universal.

Neither rule can be stated as definite.