Pearls Before Swine: Pronouncing the L in Could

[Lynn McGuire]

Pearls Before Swine: Pronouncing the L in Could
https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2022/01/13

Yup, nobody pronounces the L in Could.

Lynn

[John W Kennedy]

They did for a while, starting in the 1500s. It appears to have been a
hypercorrection—thinking that because “would” and “should” had Ls,
“could” should an L, too. But that was a mistake, because “would” and
“should” are the past forms of “will” and “shall”, which do have Ls
(although they are not pronounced in “woujld” and “should” anymore). But
“could” is the past form of “can”, and there had never been an L in it.

--
John W. Kennedy
Algernon Burbage, Lord Roderick, Father Martin, Bishop Baldwin,
King Pellinore, Captain Bailey, Merlin -- A Kingdom for a Stage!

[Christian Weisgerber]

And it's not as if the L fell silent at some point. It never was
there in the first place (cf. Old English cuþe, German konnte). As
Etymonline explains: "The unetymological -l- was added 15c.-16c.
on model of would, should, where it is historical."

--
Christian "naddy" Weisgerber na...@mips.inka.de