Joining up

First draft of *OL* linking text

The sound /ɒ/ – 37%

This (despite the relative sparseness of the words in this table – which is due chiefly to the absence of -ology words) is the most common of sounds represented by the letters *OL*. These omissions are explained in the Introduction.

The sound /ə/ – 30¼%

This is the second most common sound represented by the letters *OL*, but again the relative sizes of the tables might seem to belie this. As in the first case, omissions explained in the Introduction are the reason. In this case the omitted words have the spellings -ological and -ologically.

The sound /əʊ/ – 27½%

The sound Magic E – 6%

The sound /ʌ/ – percentage negligible

This sound occurs only in colo[u]r and its many derivatives. Some speakers use the sound /ɒ/, particularly in those derivatives.

The sound /ʊ/ – percentage negligible

This sound occurs only in the word wolf and its derivatives.

No sound – percentage negligible

This (lack of) sound occurs only in the word chocolate, and not always; younger speakers tend to enunciate the -ol- as /ə/. In chocolate's derivatives – in adult speech – the -ol- is almost always, fully agglutinated (so that a child will give chocolate three syllables, while an adult will say chocolatey with the same syllable count).

The sound /ɜ:/ – percentage negligible

This sound occurs only in the word colonel and its derivatives.

The sound /ɔ:/ – percentage negligible

This sound occurs only in South African English, presumably reflecting its Afrikaans origins.

First draft of *UL* linking text

The sounds /ʊ/ and /jʊ/ - 80%

This vowel, either preceded or not by a /j/ glide (in largely predictable contexts), is present in a majority of *UL* words (although, because of the exclusions outlined in the Introduction , it is outnumbered in this collection by words listed in the next section).

The sound /ʌ/ - 16%

This represents an unusually low proportion for a 2nd-ranked phoneme. The preponderance of /ʊ/ and /jʊ/ sounds means that if a student meets a previously unknown *UL* word there are 4 chances in 5 that the letters will represent this phoneme.

The sounds /u:/ and /ju:/ - 3%

This vowel, either preceded or not by a /j/ glide (in largely predictable contexts), accounts for very few words. The /l/ is almost always sounded, except in some names (such as Leverhulme- /li:vəhju:m/).

The sounds /ə/ and /jə/ - percentage negligible

In the Macmillan English Dictionary only one *UL* word is transcribed with the sound /jə/ (formula). But as the note to that word says, many words with the sound /jʊ/ can often be heard with the /jə/ sound.

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