The Grim Creeper Creeps On

Two lots of notes this time, representing the two least common "-al-" sounds.

First draft of "al" > /eɪ/  notes

1. Fairytale
   This is included not as a compound noun (a story with content suggested by the first element), but as an adjective.
2. Farthingale
   Not included in Macmillan English Dictionary, but is in several other dictionaries (for example Collins).
3. Hale
   If you search Macmillan English Dictionary Online, the link suggests it is an American usage. But if you change (in the URL) "american" for "british", you find a British pronunciation. The word, related etymologically to "health", is widely used on both sides of the Atlantic in the idiomatic phrase "hale and hearty".
4. Halfpenny
   This is not excluded along with other compounds that include the string "half-" because in this case the vowel sound is not /ɑ:/. Unlike the behaviour of "-al-" in other words in this section, the "l" is not sounded (it does not represent an /l/).
5. Palaeontology
   This word is transcribed in Macmillan English Dictionary with the /eɪ/ diphthong, but the audio sample has /æ/ ; some dictionaries (for example, Collins) specify /æ/ in the transcription as well.
6. Saleroom
   This represents the several other compounds that include the string "sale-"
7. Salesman
   This represents the several other compounds that include the string "sales-"
8. Telltale
   This represents the many other compounds that include the string "-tale".
9. Unsaleable
   Macmillan English Dictionary gives both "saleable" and "salable", but gives no option to this.
10. Upscale
    Macmillan English Dictionary identifies this as American and an adjective. Other dictionaries (for example, Collins) recognize it as current in British English, and also as a verb.
11. Valence
    The Macmillan English Dictionary transcribes this word with this diphthong but the audio sample has a clear /æ/ – almost as if the reader at recording had misread it as "valance". But as the American speaker uses the same phoneme, perhaps there was a typo in the script.

First draft of "al" > /a:/ | /a:l/ notes

1. almond
   Macmillan English Dictionary transcribes "almond" with this long vowel and no /l/, but many other pronunciations are current among native-speakers of British English. I have heard /ɑ:l/, /ɔ:l/, /æl/ and /ɒl/. Some of these are reported in Cambridge Dictionaries Online and identified as "American".
2. almoner
   The Macmillan English Dictionary does not include "almoner", but other dictionaries (for example, Collins) do. In this and many other "-al-" words the letters "al" represent the phoneme /ɑ:/; there is no /l/.
3. alms
   Note the plural ending.
4. aloo
   The Macmillan English Dictionary gives "aloo" this long vowel, but other pronunciations are common (as is normal with foreign borrowings).
5. fly-half
   In this expression (a position in a game of rugby) there is no clear (immediate) sense of " divided by two".
6. gala
   Used in compounds, probably the most successful being "swimming gala". In many northern dialects the stressed vowel is pronounced /eɪ/. (This pronunciation is identified in the Macmillan English Dictionary as "American".)
7. half-baked , half-breed and half-caste
   In these and many other words that use the qualifier "half" "half"-ness does not have a direct and/or obvious association with the word that follows "half-".
8. half-timbered
   In this sort of building, some of the structural timbers (not necessarily half) have a cosmetic function.
9. half-truth
   In this sort of misleading statement much of what is asserted is true (often more than half).
10. Kabbalah
    The Macmillan English Dictionary transcribes this word with the long /ɑ:/ vowel, but the audio sample has a clear /æ/. Both pronunciations are common.
11. marsala
    The Macmillan English Dictionary does not include this word but other dictionaries (for example, Collins) do.
12. qualms
    The Macmillan English Dictionary gives this in the plural. The plural is indeed more common; the British National Corpus contains 141 instances of the plural and only 30 of the singular, and in the Corpus Of Contemporary American (a much bigger corpus) the preference is even stronger (705:71). But the singular is used – most commonly after a negative, as in the idiom "without a qualm".