ill-temperament

Last week I skipped the usual tranche, as an idea in connection with  my other blog monpolized my attention – some would put it more strongly.

First draft of "il" >  /ɪl/ notes

1. ability
   This is the sole representative of more than 100 words that use the suffix -ability or -ibility.
2. affiliate
   This is the verb. The last syllable in other uses is /ə/.
3. anthill
   Students of ESOL should note that the letters "th" do not represent a /θ/ sound. Each syllable is pronounced as though it were a separate word.
4. bodily
   This can be an adverb, but it is more commonly used as an adjective – as in "bodily harm" or "bodily fluids". The British National Corpus has nine times as many instances of its use as an adjective. But, considered as an adverb, it would escape the general exclusion of -ily adverbs formed from an adjective ending in y for the obvious reason that body is a noun.
5. Cadillac, espadrille, fusillade, grille, and vaudeville
Note that, unlike some other words, such as chenille, this word has been fully Anglicized – the sound is /ɪl/.

6. centilitre
   This is the sole representative of the many words that use the prefix "centi-"
7. dilemma
   The Macmillan English Dictionary gives this pronunciation, but the /aɪ/ diphthong is also common. Macmillan English Dictionary identifies the /aɪ/ pronunciation as American, but it is common also in the UK. The Cambridge Dictionary, for example, gives the /aɪ/ pronunciation (and does not even mention /ɪ/). Both are acceptable, although there are people who insist that the word does not just mean "a sticky situation" but must refer to a choice between two options – so they feel it necessary to emphasize this by using the /aɪ/ pronunciation.
8. downhill
   This is the sole representative of the many compound words that use hill as either a prefix (as in for example hilltop) or a suffix (as here). Individual notes explain the exceptions.
9. fritillary
   This word is not in the Macmillan English Dictionary, being quite rare (as is the flower/butterfly it represents). The link is to Collins.
10. fossilize, fossilized
    The Macmillan English Dictionary does not give the -ise spelling. The link is to Collins.
11. guerrilla
    A spelling with a single r is considered acceptable by some speakers.
12. hillbilly
    This escapes the general exclusion noted in note 8 because the sense of hill, though it forms part of the word‘s etymological story, is not present in the current meaning of the word.
13. hillock
    This escapes the general exclusion noted in note 8 because ock does not in itself mean anything – not now, that is. It is derived from the Middle English diminutive suffix -oc. This is the sole representative of the many compounds formed from ill- and an adjective. Macmillan English Dictionary lists 17, but the prefix is still, as linguists say productive – so many more will occur.
14. ill-advised, ill feeling
    When there is no hyphen, and "ill" is a freestanding adjective, it usually has the meaning "unfriendly" or "unwelcome" or even "hostile".
15. immobilizer
    The Macmillan English Dictionary does not give a version spelt ‘-iser‘, but several dictionaries do. The link is to Collins. (On the other hand, the spellchecker on my android tablet does not recognize the ‘-zer‘ spelling – presumably because of the almost pathological loathing shared by many UK software engineers of all ‘-ize‘ spellings).
16. instil
    The Macmillan English Dictionary, which often gives American variants, does not give a version with the spelling instill, but in the online version the word instill appears with a URL that identifies it as American.
17. killjoy
    This is the sole representative of the many compound words that use kill as either a prefix (as here for example) or as a suffix (as in, for example, roadkill. Individual notes explain the exceptions.
18. kilobit
    This is the sole representative of the many words that use kilo- as a prefix. Individual notes explain the exceptions. Note that the noun has the /i:/ sound. The prefix kilo- has given rise to the colloquial abbreviation k (especially in reference to amounts of money).
19. matrilineal
    The Macmillan English Dictionary gives the (unlengthened) /i/ vowel, not widely used in British English, but the audio clip has /ɪ/.
20. militarized
    The Macmillan English Dictionary does not give a version with the spelling  -ised; the link is to the one dictionary that does – Dictionarist. (On the other hand, the spellchecker on my android tablet does not recognize the ‘-zed‘ spelling.
21. milkman
    This is the sole representative of the compound words that either start milk- or end -milk.
22. millepede
    This escapes the general exclusion given in note 23, as the remaining letters, after the prefix is removed, do not make a freestanding word: there are, for example, measurements such as bar or gram. Besides, the prefix is inappropriate, as these insects typically have many fewer than a thousand legs.
23. millibar
    This is the sole representative of the compound words that start milli-.
24. millstone
    This is the sole representative of the compound words that either start mill- or end -mill.
25. multilateral
    This is the sole representative of the compound words that start multi-. Macmillan English Dictionary gives the (unlengthened) /i/ vowel, not widely used in British English, but the audio clip has /ɪ/. (See also note 27).
26. nihilism
    Note that the Macmillan English Dictionary transcription and audio sample have no /h/, but that pronunciation is not uncommon. For example, listen to the British English pronunciation at Cambridge Dictionaries Online.
27. patrilineal and rectilinear
The Macmillan English Dictionary gives the (unlengthened) pronunciation /i/, as it does for matrilineal. This is possibly a mistake (although some prefixes ending in i- [for example multilateral but not quadrilateral] are given this pronunciation).

28. pillbox
    This escapes the exclusion noted in note 29 [HD: ??? I‘ll have to sort this out – but not now] because – in many of the uses of pillbox (for example, coastal defences and millinery) – the sense of pill is remote, though presumably there is (long ago in the etymological past) a figurative reference to a container for pills.
29. pillowcase
    This is the sole representative of compound nouns prefixed with pillow-, except where noted otherwise for reasons given.
30. sawmill
    This is the sole representative of compound words that use -mill as a suffix (with exceptions as noted).
31. scintillating, similar, and vigil
    The Macmillan English Dictionary gives this transcription but the audio sample has more than a hint of /ə/.
32. silverfish
    This escapes the general exclusion in note 33 because a silverfish is neither silver nor silvern.
33. silversmith
    This is the sole representative of compound words that use silver- as a prefix. In some phrases, "silver" forms what is effectively a compound word, although there is no hyphen; these usually refer to colour or have a figurative sense only distantly connected to the metal – for example, "silver birch" or "silver anniversary"
34. sterilizer
    Oddly, the Macmillan English Dictionary does not include this word, though it does include, for example, stabil[s|z]er. The link here is to Collins.
35. tonsillitis
    Note that the Macmillan English Dictionary does not give the variant spelling with a single l, though several other dictionaries – for example, Collins – do.
36. umbilical and umbilicus
    Note that although the Macmillan English Dictionary gives "umbilicus", and does not give the much more common umbilical, many other dictionaries do list the more common word. The Corpus of Contemporary American records nearly 10 times as many cases of the adjective (almost always occurring in the phrase umbilical cord) as it does of the noun (used almost exclusively by medical professionals). The British National Corpus shows a greater preponderance: the adjective occurs nearly 17 times as frequently as the noun.
37. unilateral
    This is the sole representative of the many words that use uni- as a prefix.
38. upskilling
    The Macmillan English Dictionary does not list upskill as a bare infinitive, though a few (for example, Collins) do.
39. vigilance, vigilant, and vigilante
    In spite of the Macmillan English Dictionary‘s /ə/ for many -il- words, these three have /ɪ/ in both the transcription and the audio sample (and see, in contrast, note 31). As with many other such words, either pronunciation is both common and acceptable.
40. weedkiller
    This is the sole representative of the many compound nouns formed with the ending -killer.
41. wildebeest
    The Macmillan English Dictionary transcribes this with the initial /v/ and second vowel /ə/, faithful to the word‘s Afrikaans origins. But not all usages follow this; for example, Collins gives a transcription with /w/ and /ɪ/ respectively. However,  Macmillan English Dictionary doesn't have all the etymological high ground: the audio sample has the initial consonant /w/.

No country for old rope

The last three of the "el" sounds:

First draft of "el" > "Magic E" notes

1. facelift
   This escapes the general exclusion of "face" and "lift" compounds, because although a facelift does involve tightening of facial elements, the face as a whole is not simply lifted.
2. firelight
   This is the one representative of the many compounds formed with "fire".
3. firelit
   The Macmillan English Dictionary does not include this word. Not many dictionaries do (Onelook finds only four). This link is to the Collins English Dictionary.
4. livelong
   This is a magic E in that the e does not affect the  E of the i (in the same way as it does not affect the i in the /ɪ/ pronunciation of live).
5. omelette
   This does not have a magic E in the traditional sense (where an English word ending in e has an ending [often a suffix], so that the resultant el has no sound represented by the e). But as no other English word of this kind has a silent e – apart from words with a magic E (borrowed suffix and all, with no such word as "*ome") – omelette is included here to avoid creating a separate one-word category.

First draft of "el" > /i:l/  notes

1. delectation
   The Macmillan English Dictionary gives this transcription, but the audio sample has the /e/ phoneme.
2. prelapsarian
   The Macmillan English Dictionary does not include this word, which escapes the general exclusion of words that use the "pre-" prefix because of the opacity of its derivation - Onelook finds only two dictionaries that include "lapsarian" – Wiktionary and Wikipedia. But many other dictionaries do
include "prelapsarian". The link is to Collins English Dictionary.

3. preliterate
   This is the sole representative of words formed with the prefix "pre-", with an exception covered in the previous note.
4. relaxation
   The Macmillan English Dictionary gives this transcription, but the audio sample has the /ɪ/ phoneme.

First draft of "el" > /eɪl/  notes

1. elan
   The Macmillan English Dictionary gives this transcription, but the audio sample has the /e/ phoneme. There are other possible and acceptable versions, as is common with foreign borrowings.
2. melange
   The Macmillan English Dictionary gives this transcription, but the audio sample has the /e/ phoneme (presumably the speaker knows some French, and did not follow the transcription – preferring the purer French vowel).

‘Figurative lag‘ "below-the-fold"

Here are the notes for two el-sounds: first /ə/ and then /ɪ/.

First draft of "el" > /əl/  notes

1. alleluia
   The Macmillan English Dictionary has this transcription but the audio sample has an /e/ vowel.
2. babel
   The Macmillan English Dictionary does not give this its initial capital, which some speakers associate with the pronunciation that has /eɪ/ in the first syllable.
3. becquerel
   The Macmillan English Dictionary has this transcription, but many people use /e/ – especially if they did French at school.
4. belligerent
   The Macmillan English Dictionary has this transcription but the audio sample has an /ɪ/ vowel. Both are both common and acceptable.
5. by-election
   On the Macmillan English Dictionary CD-ROM, although the speaker of both this and election is the same, the second vowel is different (although there is no transcription). It sounds closer to /ə/. It is probable that after the /aɪ/ there is dissimilation to avoid the triphthong (although this /aɪɪ/ is not uncommon – in words such as weighing).
6. celeb, celebrity, celerity, celestial, correlate, crenel(l)ated, derelict, and dereliction
   The Macmillan English Dictionary has this, but the pronunciation /ɪ/ is common (it is given, for example, in the Collins English Dictionary.)
7. deluxe
   The Macmillan English Dictionary has this transcription but the audio sample has the /ɪ/ vowel – a common alternative.
8. fuselage
   The e seems like a magic E, as it makes the u into /ju:/ rather than /ʌ/ (as in pairs like fuss/fuse or muss/muse), but the word has three syllables.
9. gravel(l)ed and gruel(l)ing
   The Macmillan English Dictionary does not include a version with a single l on the CD-ROM, but does in the online version.
10. grovel(l)ing and snivel(l)ing
    The Macmillan English Dictionary does not include a version with a single l, although many other dictionaries (for example, the Collins English Dictionary) do.
11. haveli
    The Macmillan English Dictionary puts primary stress on the last syllable, but the speaker in the audio clip does not. This is not a commonly used word in the UK, and the speaker is probably meeting it for the first time.
12. jewel[l]ery
    Also spelt (as it is pronounced – that is, with 3 syllables) "jewelry". In British English this spelling is optional. In American English the shorter version is standard; it outnumbers jewellery nearly 100:1 in the Corpus of Contemporary American (7,650:79). There is a slightly greater preponderance (this time for jewellery over jewelry) in the British National Corpus (1,216:11). .
13. labeled and labeling
    The Macmillan English Dictionary does not list a version with two ls although many other dictionaries (for example the Collins English Dictionary) do.
14. leveled and leveling
    The Macmillan English Dictionary does not include a version with two ls, though it does include "leveller" (not more level, but something that redresses an imbalance, or a participant in a particular politico-historical movement, The Levellers.
15. minstrelsy
    The Macmillan English Dictionary does not include this word, but many others (for example, the Collins English Dictionary) do.
16. Noel
    This name is a homograph of a word in the /e/ section.
17. quarreled, quarreling, shoveled, shoveling, shriveled, shriveling, snorkeled, snorkeling, swiveled, tunneled, tunneling, unraveled, and unraveling.
    The Macmillan English Dictionary does not include a version with a single l on the CD-ROM, but does in the online version.
18. rebel
    This word when stressed on the first syllable (with a /ə/ in the second) when it is a noun. When it is a verb it takes stress on the second syllable.
19. shellac
    The Macmillan English Dictionary gives both this and /e/ as alternative pronunciations for the noun and does not give the verb. Other dictionaries (for example the Collins English Dictionary) give both. Some speakers distinguish between the verb with /ə/ – and stress on the second syllable – and the noun with /e/ (matching a similar distinction between the noun produce – with an   lagopen vowel in the first syllable – and the verb produce – with /ə/).
20. untramelled
    The Macmillan English Dictionary does not give the spelling with a single l in the CD-ROM version, but in the online version it gives untrameled – with a URL that identifies it as an American usage.

First draft of "el" > /ɪl/  notes

1. below-the-fold
   It is ironic (but a sign of the way metaphors continue to be used long after the underlying technology has moved on) that the Macmillan English Dictionary defines this as "the part of an Internet document that you cannot see without moving the page downwards". In that context, "page" is another. Other examples of this figurative lag are "a flash in the pan" (reference to an obsolete firearm mechanism) and "hang up" (reference to an obsolete telephone design). In this case the reference is to a folded newspaper.
2. deselect
   The Macmillan English Dictionary gives this transcription, but the audio sample has an /ə/. Both vowels are used.
3. elaborate
   In the CD-ROM containing the New Edition of the Macmillan English Dictionary (Version 2.3.0711), although the verb and the adjective have distinct transcriptions (with respect to the last syllable), they both have the same audio; the verb is correct but the adjective is incorrectly given the /eɪt/ ending. This is correct in the online version, so may have been corrected in a later release of the software version
4. elicit
   The Macmillan English Dictionary gives this (both transcription and audio), but often speakers avoid the punning "illicit" by giving "elicit" an /e/.
5. felonious
   The Macmillan English Dictionary does not include this, but many other dictionaries (for example Collins) do.
6. hallelujah
   The Macmillan English Dictionary gives this transcription, but the audio sample has /eɪ/. Both pronunciations are both common and acceptable.
7. pellucid
   The Macmillan English Dictionary gives this transcription, but the audio sample has something approaching /ə/. Both pronunciations are both common and acceptable.
8. preliminary
   The Macmillan English Dictionary transcribes this with an /i/ (for both the adjective and the noun). This is obviously a mistake.
9. select, selection, selective, and selector
   These four are all transcribed in the Macmillan English Dictionary with the /ɪ/ vowel, but the audio for the first three has the vowel /ə/, with only "selector" having an audio clip matching the transcription. Both vowels are both common and acceptable.