The followîng question originally occurred at Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Language#Poker_dots. I myself participated in the hilarity - poor Jack of Oz! I have preserved it here so that others may enjoy it and not have to search the archives for it. Interchangeable|talk to me
Polka dot tells me the name derives from the dance known as the polka. When referring to the dance, people usually pronounce polka as it looks; but when talking about polka dots, they often pronounce it as a non-rhotic "poker".
Why do people talk of "poker dots" and not "polka dots"? -- Jack of Oz [your turn] 11:38, 13 September 2011 (UTC)
Jack of Oz entirely confused the issue by referring to a non-rhotic pronunciation of a non-existent phrase "poker dots." That might be a good approximation of the way the phrase is pronounced to someone who speaks a non-rhotic dialect as does he, as if what is said poka dots had dreived from poker dots. But that is not the case historically or an any English speaker's speech. His comment had nothing to do with rhotacism affecting or not affecting the /l/.
Rather, the term polka dot current since the 1850's, has simply undergone the very common phenomenon of l-dropping : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonological_history_of_English_consonants#L_vocalization_and_L_dropping while the term polka for the dance has retained it's /l/ due to reinforcement by foreign speakers using the non-velarized /l/ and as a foreignism.
As I child I knew how to dance a polka, and had always assumed poke a dots were meant to be poked. I was surprised to learn the actual spelling, polka dot. μηδείς (talk) 01:38, 15 September 2011 (UTC)