How do you pronounce “Milk?”

[TipsyTraveler]

The l’s are silent in those words.

I was talking about the A sounds.

No, like maa-lk. It's hard to express it properly in print. Mal as in maladjusted or malcontent or with a k on the end.

Ah, like talc?

 

[RedAngie]

Most of the time, rhymes with silk.

With family, it’s mleh-ko.

Polish pronunciation.

 

[Disney.Dreamin.Dee]

This is an example of the Pin-Pen Merger! It’s very common.

Pin/pen kind of drives me nuts mostly because I get confused as to which one the person is actually saying since they are very different things.

 

[Lilsia]

Most of the time, rhymes with silk.

With family, it’s mleh-ko.

Polish pronunciation.

I am glad someone said it because that is the first thing that I thought. LOL

 

[Karin1984]

The “crayon” thread got me thinking about another word that is pronounced differently in my family. Younger DD pronounces “milk” as “MELK.” No one else does this. Not sure where it comes from but we were just having this conversation last week and just yesterday heard a newscaster say the word, “melk.” So, I was just curious…how do YOU pronounce cow juice?

Send her over to the Netherlands, we call it melk

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

Rhymes with silk.

 

[slo]

Another vote for rhymes with silk

 

[SirDuff]

Most of the time, rhymes with silk.

With family, it’s mleh-ko.

Polish pronunciation.

That’s not a pronunciation - it’s a different word (one we use in our house too).

In case in matters, we also use szlafrock for bathrobe and schmatte for dish rag.

 

[tzolkin]

Milk but husband and one daughter say melk. We tease them about it often. My husband has slightly off pronunciations of several words, but I think melk is the only one that has stuck with anyone else.

Older DD (23) and I found it absolutely hilarious when we discovered that husband pronounces tinder and tender the same way.

 

[AppleDumpling]

Milk. Have never heard melk.

 

[dez1978]

I say milk like silk. But apparently I say barette wrong. I say it like BAR-ette. Apparently irs BER-ette. Who knew? lol. Most everyone I grew up with said it the same. Also peony. I say that differently than everyone where I now live.

 

[ronandannette]

I was talking about the A sounds.

Ah, like talc?

Yes - like talc! Having little kids must really up your rhyming game! I couldn’t for the life of me come up with a word.

 

[sam_gordon]

I wonder if people think they're saying it one way, but are actually saying it the other. I could probably count on one hand the number of people I've heard milk rhyming with silk.

 

[SirDuff]

I wonder if people think they're saying it one way, but are actually saying it the other. I could probably count on one hand the number of people I've heard milk rhyming with silk.

Also depends on how you say silk

 

[dez1978]

I wonder if people think they're saying it one way, but are actually saying it the other. I could probably count on one hand the number of people I've heard milk rhyming with silk.

And I don't think I've heard more than a handful of ppl say it any other way lol.

 

[Moliphino]

And I don't think I've heard more than a handful of ppl say it any other way lol.

Same. My mom says melk and pellow and I have no idea where she got it from, as that's not how most people in my area say them. She was born and raised in MA, but her dad was from PA? Is it a thing there?

 

[bethbuchall]

I wonder if people think they're saying it one way, but are actually saying it the other. I could probably count on one hand the number of people I've heard milk rhyming with silk.

My mom grew up in Ohio. She definitely still says melk as do the relatives still near her home town. Everyone around here says milk (rhymes with silk). It’s a regional thing, I’m sure, but I hear both, and I know that I say milk, not melk.

Also, I’m not sure why there needs to be so much judgment about regional pronunciation and arguments about what is “right.”

 

[sam_gordon]

And I don't think I've heard more than a handful of ppl say it any other way lol.

Right. But how do the people you hear THINK they say it? That's my point.

 

[Karin1984]

Send her over to the Netherlands, we call it melk

Wait, scratch that, don't send her over to the Netherlands. Yes, the Dutch word is spelled melk. However, in Dutch the e is pronounced as the a in English.

How she pronounces it makes me wonder, does she have friends from German descent? Where the parents or grandparents speak German among themselves?
The German word for milk is milch. In German the i is pronounced as the e in English.

 

[unrequited23]

It's usually "melk" in NE Ohio, plus we do long short a sounds too. Apple will sound like aapple with the vowel stretched out a bit.