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Monday, September 12, 2016

/ɔ:l/ together again

I don't plan to re-post everything here as I do my second pass, but this is a case of significant rewriting/correction/addition. So [and in that case the word does have a meaning] here are the /ɔ:/ and /ɔ:l/ notes.

  1. all-conquering
    This is the sole representative of the many adjectives that use the prefix "all" (for example "all-knowing", "all-powerful"...).
  2. all alone/along
    This sound occurs in the first word. The "al" in the second word is unstressed. See /ə/.
  3. alright
    This is not included in some dictionaries, but the Macmillan English Dictionary does include it - only adding "Many people consider this to be incorrect.‘
  4. balk
    Also "baulk". Note that, unlike many other -alk words (chalk, stalk, talk, and walk), this word keeps the /l/ sound (as does caulk – although the spelling without the u is much less common). In the British National Corpus there are a good half as many instances of balk as there are of baulk (24:40); the Macmillan English Dictionary does include it, but notes that it is an American usage. Even the Corpus of Contemporary American, though, includes many more instances of caulk than of calk. In any case, a student of ESOL is unlikely to need this word.
  5. Balkanis/zation
    The Macmillan English Dictionary transcribes this word thus, but the audio sample uses the sound /ɒ/.
  6. ballcock
    This is the sole representative of the many compound words that start "ball-" (for example" ballgown") - or end "-ball" (for example "baseball").
  7. balti
    The Macmillan English Dictionary gives two transcriptions, /ɔ:/ and /æ/, but the audio clips (though of different speakers) both use the /ɔ:/ phoneme. Typical of foreign borrowings, the vowels can vary widely; /ɒ/ is also common in this word.
  8. be-all
    This is part of the phrase "be-all-and-end-all". In current usage there is no other phrase that includes it.
  9. callback
    This is the sole representative of the many compound words that use the string "call-" or "-call".
  10. chalkboard
    This is the sole representative of other compound words that use the string "chalk-" (for example, "chalkface").
  11. cobalt
    The Macmillan English Dictionary gives this transcription, but the audio sample uses a sound that falls somewhere between /ɒ/ and /æ/.
  12. enthral(l)
    The Macmillan English Dictionary does not include the version that has "ll" in the CD-ROM version (and indeed its participles are much more common). But other dictionaries, including Macmillan English Dictionary online, do include it. The link there includes the word "American" , though the British National Corpus has 12 instances in a corpus of 100 million words (1:83), whereas the Corpus of Contemporary American has an almost identical frequency (58 in a corpus of 450 million - 1:76).
  13. fall
    This list does not include the many compound words that include the string "fall" where there is a clear sense of downward motion; in many cases this meaning is present but lost in the mists of etymology.
  14. hallmark
    The many compound words that include the string "hall", where there is a clear sense of a public and/or general-use room. In some cases (for instance, "hallmark") this sense is less clear.
  15. highball
    This escapes the global exclusion of "-ball" compounds as there is no "ball" in a "highball".
  16. instal(l)
    The Macmillan English Dictionary does not include the spelling with a single "l" but many other dictionaries do - the Collins English Dictionary, for example, does.
  17. mall
    See also under /æ/.
  18. overalls
    The adjective (with no "s") is excluded along with many other "over-" and "-all" compounds, but the "plural" is a garment (which is naturally singular, not unlike "trousers").
  19. palter
    This word is not in the Macmillan English Dictionary , though it is in several other dictionaries (for example, the Collins English Dictionary). It is indeed rare: it does not figure in British National Corpus , and Corpus of Contemporary American includes only 11 instances.
  20. salt water
    This is the sole representative of collocations that include the word "salt".
  21. SWALK
    The Macmillan English Dictionary gives this with the /ɔ:/ vowel, but as it is necessarily written (on the outside of an envelope) the question of its pronunciation is moot. (My "mental voice" pronounces it with the /æ/ vowel, and with the /l/ sounded.)
  22. uptalk
    The Macmillan English Dictionary gives only the noun, but the primary stress marked in the transcription does not match the primary stress sounded in the audio sample (either for British English or for American English). The speakers in the examples presumably have in mind a verb (which other dictionaries agree in not including); but I have heard both stresses, and suspect that future dictionaries may recognize the existence of a verb. In this case it seems possible that – since the word is chiefly used among linguists – the speakers both make the mistaken assumption that it is a compound verb formed on the basis of the phrasal verb talk up, meaning something like "enhance (in price or position) by means of unwarranted praise". At present, the word is used fairly rarely in discussions of modes of speech; "uptalk" is not alone among terms used to refer to the same phenomenon. In academic use the preferred word seems to be "HRT" (High Rise Terminal and/or Tone).
  23. walkover/walkthrough
    This is not excluded with other "walk-" compounds because a contestant awarded a walkover does not necessarily walk; nor does a person conducting a walkthrough, for similar reasons.
  24. wallflower/wallpaper
    This is not excluded with other "wall-" compounds because of the figurative meaning (wallflower - someone [in the days when formal dancing was the norm in "polite society", this person was necessarily a woman] who does not have a dancing partner; wallpaper - a background on a PC/laptop/tablet/phone)
  25. windfall
    This escapes the exclusion of other "wind-" and "-fall" compounds because of the figurative meaning (both as a noun [an unexpected stroke of good fortune] and as an adjective [chiefly used in the expression "windfall tax"]).

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