I recently learned that almond farmers in northern California pronounce the word almond as ah-mond, with the silent l. There’s a humorous explanation that the nut is called an almond on the tree and an ah-mond on the ground because you shake the l out of it. Of course, that’s not the actual reason for the pronunciation change. Almonds were first introduced to southern California by Spanish missionaries who referred to them as almendras, and then to northern California by Portuguese and French immigrants who called them amendas and amandolas, respectively. This is just one of the many linguistic differences between the two halves of the state, with the south having more Chicano English and “Valleyspeak,” while the north uses the word hella more frequently.
