‘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.