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Specific Phonetic Contexts Dropped L
- A wider loss of l occurred after the 1400s in environments after a or o before f, v, m, k, creating silent-l words like talk and calf.
- Educated speakers often retained ls longer, as seen in John Hart's spellings.
Spelling Revivals Reintroduced Silent Ls
- Renaissance spelling reforms reintroduced historical letters, reviving written ls even where pronunciation had been lost.
- That created silent letters and sometimes led speakers to pronounce the reintroduced l again.
One Letter, Many R Sounds
- The r letter represents multiple historically distinct sounds (trilled, tapped, retroflex, uvular), complicating reconstruction.
- Spelling alone can't reveal which r variant was used in a period.