Acceptable Cluster?

Somehow it managed to pass by me, but it seems that there might be some increasing evidence to suggest that the vl- onset cluster might not be so unnatural for English after all¹. With the neologism vlog and it's derivatives gaining wide acceptance (11.4 million hits on google for "vlog"), it might be that time. Though I must admit, it still looks strange to see the vl- combo. I think my automatic processes don't know what to make of it.

There was never a question as to the viability of vl-, names like Vladimir, Vladivostok, and Vlaminck have always been pronounceable, but there was little in the way of innovation with vl. In fact, I can't even think of too many words that have a vl cluster in them anywhere. My short list is souvlaki, gravlax, pavlova, all loan words, and all food (though, there are a lot of food loan words).

Anyway, vlog is kind of an interesting compound, since it comes from VIDEO + BLOG. Now, blog comes from the term WEBLOG, with the we- dropped. Weblog looks like a compound of WEB and LOG. It's a little strange that there is no trace of the "web" aspect any longer in the term vlog. It happens though.

Note ¹: It just occurred to me that people might say /'vi.lɔg/. I've never actually heard this before, but I haven't heard /vlɔg/ either.