Episode 160: Approximant-ly English
The History of English Podcast
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The Loss of the L in English Words in the 14 and 15 Centuries
Linguist John hart only has a couple of examples of these words. He spells them phonetically with an l, implying that they were still pronounced with an l in educated london speech in the 15 hundreds. But other writers like william bullicar indicated that the ls were silent in those words. And another early linguist named alexander gill wrote in the early 16 hundred that the ls are pronounced an educated speech, but often dropped in the speech of most common people.
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