Slowly slowly catchee breathee

First draft of "al" > /əl/ notes

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I shall be posting here highlights  of the work in progress. Unlike the first #WVGTbk, I have separated out the notes and sorted them by phoneme; there are only twelve for this phoneme, but there are often more (42 is the record so far). So, if the notes were organized per spelling (as they are, for example, for "AE") they might reach into the hundreds. In any case, the idea of footnotes as a whole needs revisiting.
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1. Nouns such as "aerial", "annual", "constitutional" and many others can also be adjectives, but unlike the originally adjectival "hymnal" and "missal" they don‘t (yet?) enjoy "splendid [substantive] isolation"
2. algal, alkali and balalaika
   These words appear also in the /æ/ section. The /ə/ is in the second syllable in all three cases.
3. alleged and allegedly
   The addition of the final ‘-d‘ to make the simple past form does not change the syllable count: both ‘allege‘ and ‘alleged‘ have two syllables. But ‘allegedly‘ has four, with a schwa in the third.
4. alloy
   This is the noun.

   <comment>
   This looks very odd. I must do some checking, though I suspect that Homer nodded (Doh!") Probable fix: for noun read verb
   </comment>

   The Macmillan English Dictionary does not include the verb, but other dictionaries – for example, Collins – do. It is not common as a verb (with unstressed first syllable), but the past participle is, particularly with the prefix "un-".
5. ally
   This is the verb. The noun has different stress and a different vowel sound – see under /æ/.
6. analogical
   This exception to the ‘no adjectives‘ rule is included because the cognates ‘analog[u]e‘, ‘analogis/-ze‘ and ‘analogy‘ all have stress on the second syllable.
7. gallant
   This is the noun. The word with stress on the first syllable is an adjective – see under /æ/.
8. Kalashnikov
   The Macmillan English Dictionary transcribes this with /əl/, but the first syllable in the audio clip is clearly /æl/. Other possibilities are heard – as is the case with many foreign names.
9. marshall
   This is the noun/verb, unlike the homophonous (and etymologically unrelated) "martial".
10. normalcy
    The noun "normality" is excluded like other "-ality" words. This is included because it follows the pattern of many "-nt" adjectives (such as "lenient") – but not so far as to drop its final consonant before adding "-cy".
11. salami
    The Macmillan English Dictionary transcribes this with /əl/, but some speakers of British English show more respect for the original Italian vowel.
12. vocalise
    The "-alis/ze" verb is excluded. This noun (with the third syllable /i:/) is not included in the Macmillan English Dictionary, but is in several other dictionaries (for example, Collins).