ill-met

This post contains the rest of the *IL* sounds; there are only four altogether – these three and the third of last month's tranche.

First draft of "il" >  /aɪl/ notes

1. childhood and godchild
   These two are each (one as a prefix and one as a suffix) representative of the many compound words that use the affix "child".
2. facile and facileness
   Note that the American pronunciation of the adjective, ending /əl/, is increasingly to be heard in the UK. The derived noun is facileness (which does not, in British English, mean the same as facility). The link is to the Collins English Dictionary.
3. mileometer
   This is the sole representative of the compound words that start mile-.
4. resile
   The Macmillan English Dictionary does not include this word, but other dictionaries – for example, the Collins English Dictionary – do.
5. wildcat
   This escapes the general exclusion given in note 7 because the word wildcat (in collocations uch as wildcat strike) does not have the common (animal) sense – or does, but only in a figurative sense (of something hard to control).
6. wildfire
   This escapes the general exclusion given in note 7 because the fire is wild only in the figurative sense that early hominids tamed it.
7. wildfowl
   This is the sole representative of the many compound words that have wild- prrepended. Individual notes explain the exceptions.
8. wild-goose chase
   When Shakespeare put this expression in the mouth of Mercutio (in the first recorded use), he was probably referring to a certain kind of horse-race, with a leading horse being followed by other riders in the V-shape typical of migrating geese. When used today, it refers more directly (although figuratively) to the notion of chasing after wild geese. (It seems to me that this change in meaning may have been influenced, in days when Latin was more widely studied, by an awareness of the fact that a mission to find the solution to a question that has no anser [=Latin, "goose"] was vain; but there is no documentary proof of this – which, I admit, smacks of folk-etymology.)

First draft of "il" >  /əl/ notes

1. annihilate
Note that the second syllable has the /aɪ/ vowel and the h is silent.


2. bedevil[l]ed
   The Macmillan English Dictionary gives only the American spelling (with a single l), but several other dictionaries do –  for example, the Collins English Dictionary.
3. cartilage
   Sic in The Macmillan English Dictionary but the same dictionary gives "cartilaginous" with an /ɪ/. Either vowel is both acceptable and common.
4. family, peril, perilous, perilously, privilege, privileged, sacrilege, sacrilegious, scurrilous, stepfamily (etc), syphilis, weevil
   The Macmillan English Dictionary gives this pronunciation but some dictionaries – for example, Collins English Dictionary – give /ɪ/. Either vowel is both acceptable and common.
5. pastille
   The Macmillan English Dictionary gives this pronunciation, but other dictionaries give /ɪ/. One of these, Collins English Dictionary, reserves this pronunciation for the word pastel. A pronunciation with the vowel /i:/ in the second syllable is also acceptable; in this case the stress is sometimes on the second syllable.
6. pencil, probabilistic, simile
   The Macmillan English Dictionary gives this transcription, but the audio sample has a hint of /ɪ/ – a pronunciation that is widely used.
7. penciled, penciling
   The Macmillan English Dictionary does not give a version with a double l, but many dictionaries – for example, Collins English Dictionary – do.
8. pupil and utensil
   The Macmillan English Dictionary gives this pronunciation but some speakers use /ɪ/. Either vowel is both acceptable and common.
9. Savile Row
   Note the pronunciation; /ɪ/ (not /aɪ/, as a student of ESOL might expect) is also common. The pronunciation with /ə/ matches the American English pronunciation of some other "-ile" words, such as "hostile" and "missile".
10. similarity, similarly
    The Macmillan English Dictionary has this, but similar is transcribed with /ɪ/ (though, as the note to that word suggests, either pronunciation is acceptable; in fact, in an unstressed syllable, there is scarcely any difference. The Macmillan English Dictionary suggests that the pronunciation with /ɪ/ is American, though it is common also in the UK.
11. tonsil
    The Macmillan English Dictionary gives this pronunciation but some speakers use /ɪ/ – especially in a context that includes words such as tonsillectomy or tonsillitis (which the same dictionary transcribes with an /ɪ/). Either vowel is both acceptable and common.
12. underprivileged
    This is the sole representative of the many words that use under- as a prefix.

First draft of "il" >  /i:l/ notes

1. automobile
   This is the sole representative of compound words formed with -mobile as a suffix. ESOL students should note that this -mobile does not have the /ɑɪ/ vowel used in the word mobile. (The stress is also different.)
2. chenille and déshabillé
   The double l, as in some French and most Spanish borrowings, represents a /j/. Unlike some French borrowings (typically, but not always, ending -lle , the pronunciation is sometimes partly Anglicized with /i:l/ phonemes (rather than /i:j/ , which is also sometimes heard [with no trace of an /l/ sound] ). In other cases (Cadillac, espadrille, fusillade, grille, pastille, Nashville, quadrille, and vaudeville), the Anglicization has gone further and the sound is /ɪl/ or /əl/.
   
   In Spanish borrowings (typically ending -lla or -llo), the pronunciation is often fully Anglicized with /ɪl/ phonemes (rather than /i:j/). An example of this, not in the Macmillan English Dictionary but in several others (such as the Collins English Dictionary) is cigarillo. See, for contrast, tortilla.


3. filo pastry
   The Macmillan English Dictionary transcribes this with the /i:/ vowel, but the audio sample is /ɪ/. A fully Anglicized pronunciation with the /ɑɪ/ phoneme is also common. As often with foreign borrowings, the pronunciation is very variable.
4. kilo
   The freestanding word (a noun) has the vowel sound /i:/, but see also the /ɪ/ section for the adjectival prefix (kilo-).