Why you Should Pronounce the 'L' in Salmon: Linguistic Discrimination & Hot Honey Glaze

— A look at the power of linguistic hierarchy and a quick salmon marinade recipe

(jump to recipe below, after essay)

Do you pronounce the hard ‘L’ in salmon? Does your dad? Your grandma? Maybe a timid colleague? Maybe the L is pronounced in the language you speak other than English. I used to shudder in embarrassment every time my mom said salmon. Usually, during the rare occasion of going out to dinner at a restaurant. At a big booth, we’d sit. Energized and shy, a family of 4 daughters and one mother. The waiter would go around the table, taking each of our orders, pointing to us with their pen. Then it would be her time to order and (knowing in advance what she decided on) I’d clench my jaw and shoulders as I watched all corners of her mouth open to speak:

“I’ll have the salllme—”

“Ma,” interrupting her mid-sentence, “‘—it’s pronounced sæ-mən.’”

“‘Oh, excuse me. I’ll have the sæ-mən, please,’” she asked politely.

Once the waiter shuffled away from our table, all of us sisters would obnoxiously perform a mix of uncontrollable laughter and embarrassment at her mispronunciation. This was a cruel and frequent occurrence in my childhood—correcting the spelling for our mother, who grew up speaking a mix of Liberian Pidgin English or Kolokwa, and Indigenous languages in Liberia’s mountainous interior. At the time, I thought by correcting the way she spoke, it was a way to protect her. It was a way to protect our family. It was my job to guard them from the cold, hard world we’d all experience together in our little women immigrant household.

When people heard her accent or pronunciations of words, I could see the tiny flame of judgment in their eyes—at our schools, restaurants, hotel lobbies. Even my friends’ moms and sometimes her colleagues would snicker. I instinctively knew that this had the potential to evaporate opportunities for her. And I also knew that we had also become an extension of that. This manifested itself in strange ways: Like when strangers would compliment us on the fluency with which my sisters and I spoke English. “You speak English so well,” they’d say, as if we asked them to rate us. As if we weren’t native-born English speakers. We used to suck our teeth at them once they were out of earshot. I guess that did make us very African, lol.

In retrospect, I am now horrified by how disgustingly rude it was to have treated my mother in that way. To correct her as the parent. I wonder what that feels like over time. To be dismissed. Even by the children you bore.

Linguistic Discrimination or Linguicism

At its root, linguistic discrimination is a pervasive and oftentimes subconscious form of discrimination with implicit and racist biases based on the accent, speech pattern, or dialect of the speaker and their perceived grasp on a dominant language. Those of us growing up around or speaking African American Vernacular English (AAVE) know what I mean. Newly emigrated people with strong accents experience this daily know what I mean. Refugees know what I mean.

This sifting of people based on an accent creates unhealthy and abusive dynamics and unspoken hierarchies in workplaces, on Zoom calls, at restaurants, social outings, and multilingual gatherings. It assumes psychologically that the person speaking with an accent is somehow dishonest, inferior, or less intelligent because of their perceived vocabulary. This can oftentimes lead to an unjustifiable inferiority complex. Think of the number of times there’s a pretentious dish that is almost impossible to pronounce and how inadequate one is made to feel when it comes out of your mouth wrong. Now imagine this happening daily.

Dr. Sender Dovchin, a linguist and prolific professor and fellow of linguistics, explains plainly that:

“When English is spoken by some Europeans, including for example French-, German-, Italian-accented English, they can be considered really cute, sophisticated, stylish and so forth,” Dr. Dovchin adds that, “English spoken by Asians, Africans or Middle Easterners may be viewed as challenging and unpleasant.”

The most unfortunate aspect of this brand of discrimination is that it overlooks the competency of multilingual speakers and disregards the high level of intelligence it takes to speak multiple languages—or even multiple dialects of a language. Here’s a heady article on the neuroscience of an accent (that I’m too blazed to explain right now) and what happens to our brains when we process accents, learn them, or struggle to learn them. I find this particularly fascinating because I’ve always credited my ability to speak Spanish with a strong and localized accent to the variety of accents and dialects in my environment since birth. I recommend giving the study a skim.

Dialects as Languages

The example of the pronunciation of salmon as "sam-on" with a silent ‘L’ is considered the standard in most English dialects, but I would argue, along with some, that saying it with the “L” could possibly suggest a high level of linguistic awareness that is more diverse or refined than their second language. Some social scientists theorize that dialects are a result of language evolution. They showcase our stellar ability as humans to communicate and survive by bridging the gap between indigenous communities and the linguistically colonized communities. It’s the way we’ve been able to trade spices and seeds for centuries. It’s the way we continue to connect in a global world.

If you consider a dialect like Kolokwa from Liberia, or more broadly, West African Pidgin English or (WAPE), my mother would be considered bilingual. She grew up gracefully switching between speaking Kolokwa English peppered with multiple ancient African vocabulary from the areas now known as Mali, Liberia, Sierra Leone, or Ivory Coast. Because of the fluidity of WAPE, it has evolved into a power dialect widely used throughout the shores of West Africa. It’s a collection of Pidgin and Creole languages—from the Aku language spoken in The Gambia, to Krio in Sierra Leone, Nigerian Pidgin, Ghanaian Pidgin, and even Cameroonian Pidgin. These dialects are rooted in WAPE that emerged centuries ago.

“We say that Chinese is a language with many dialects and that French, Italian, and Spanish are different languages. But the diversity of the Chinese “dialects”is roughly comparable to that of the Romance languages.” — Noam Chomsky

And when those of African descent migrated, or were forcibly moved—with us came our languages, our accents, and dialects—shaping what eventually evolved into the English-based creoles in the American South. Languages and dialects like Gullah, Jamaican Patois, Belizean Kriol or criollo beliceño, and Guyanese Creolese. Which might explain my affinity and unfounded obsession to dancehall music, lol.

In the book Second Dialect Acquisition, author Jeff Siegel suggests that a second dialect for a child speaking AAVE or a French Canadian English speaker moving to Australia might both similarly find acquiring a new English dialect to be similar to the brain and psychologically as learning a second language or Second Language Acquisition (SLA).

The modern grandfather of linguistics, and political activist Noam Chomsky, stands firmly on the belief that the main difference between a dialect and language is primarily based on social and political parameters. That language should instead be categorized scientifically through the usage of our innate universal grammar. For example, if you look at Italian, Spanish, and French—they can all be seen as dialects under the umbrella of the Romance languages of Vulgar Latin. Yet we call them languages. And when it comes to other spoken dialects, for example, Chinese or even (WAPE), they’re not commonly considered languages despite some of their complexities. Unc Chomsky also theorizes that in the case of German and Dutch—if using loose colonial standards—the classification of dialects and other languages are then based on bias. “In colloquial usage, we say that German is one language and Dutch another,” he states, “but some dialects of German are more similar to Dutch dialects than to other, more remote dialects of German.” It only continues to solidify that none of us really know what we’re talking about, yet we just keep talking.

So go ahead and pronounce that ‘L’ in salmon. Maybe pronouncing it is okay. Maybe we don’t need to correct the way people speak anymore. Maybe we can give them grace. Maybe we can start judging each other less and learn more. Myself included.

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The Recipe —

Hot Honey Salmon

This recipe is really about the marinade, that you can reserve in a jar to save for grilled tofu, grilled veggies (carrots especially), or other seafood.

Actual BTS footage of my struggle for good lighting for food porn photos.

crisping the skin

What you need:

• 1 ½ lbs salmon, with skin

• 1 bunch fresh cilantro

• 2 small serrano peppers, thinly sliced

• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped

• ¼ tsp cayenne pepper

• 2-3 limes, to clean fish

• 1/2 cup honey (weed infused recipe here)

• ½ tsp salt

• ½ tsp black pepper

What to do:

1. On a sheet pan or wide plate, lay the fish and squeeze lime juice on all sides to clean it. Cover and place it in the refrigerator.

2. In a saucepan on medium heat, add 2/3 of the sliced serrano peppers and garlic into the saucepan with honey. Simmer until it creates small bubbles. Turn off and let the mixture sit for about 5 minutes, covered. With a spoon, remove some of the peppers and the seeds from the hot honey.

3. Spoon honey over the non-skin side of the salmon and season with cayenne, salt, pepper, and any other season blend you like. Cover the salmon and place it in the refrigerator for no less than one hour — you can also leave it overnight for extra flavor.

4. Now, here you can either grill the salmon, broil the salmon, or pan-sear it like me to get extra crispy skin as a snack or pet treats. Either way, keep an eye out to avoid overcooking. In an oven, it will take about 15-20 minutes, on the stove about 3-5 minutes on each side.

5. Garnish with fresh herbs and more honey. Serve mash, peas, rice, pasta, beans, or jollof :)

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