What ESOL student can do without "oleagineity"?

This post contains notes pertaning to the next most common of the *OL* sounds.

First draft of "ol" >  /əʊl/ notes

1. acrolect
   The Macmillan English Dictionary gives this transcription, but the audio sample has the vowel sound /ə/.
2. bankroll
   This is the sole representative of the many compound nouns formed by the addition of -roll. In this case adding another noun has produced a new verb too: to bankroll something is to make its development possible by making funds available.
3. below-the-fold
   link to el- ɪ note
4. boll
   The Macmillan English Dictionary gives this transcription, but the audio sample has the vowel sound /ɒ/ (sharing the vowel sound with atoll, doll, folly, jolly, knoll, moll, poll, and toll[bridge|booth] (but not toll itself) . See also note 15.
5. ecolabel
   This is the sole representative of the many words (and neologisms) that use the prefix eco-.
6. folk (and its derivatives), holm-oak, and yolk
   These words could be in a section of their own, as they have no /l/ sound.
7. gasholder
   This is the sole representative of the many words that use hold to make a compound word when the string -hold has a clear containing sense. This does not apply to some -hold words – for example freehold.
8. gentlefolk
   This is the sole representative of the many compound nouns formed with -folk.
9. goldfinch
   As the gold in this compound is metaphorical it escapes the exclusion given in note 10.
10. goldmine
    This is the sole representative of compound words constructed with the prefix gold-.
11. mold (and its derivatives), molt, and smolder
    These words are American English variants of words that – by dint of the general exclusion of words with double vowels – are not included here.
12. monolingual
    The Macmillan English Dictionary gives this transcription, but the audio sample has the vowel sound /ə/.
13. oleander 
    The Macmillan English Dictionary gives this transcription, but the audio sample has the vowel sound /ɑ/.
14. polarity
    The Macmillan English Dictionary gives this transcription, but the audio sample has the vowel sound /ə/.
15. poll
    This is unlike many other -oll words, which have the vowel sound /ɒ/. In the fairly uncommon usage that refers to a truncated part, some speakers always prefer /ɒ/.
16. profiterole
    Students of ESOL should note that neither of the es in this word is a Magic E. The first represents a new syllable (in a four-syllable word), leaving the second vowel as /ɪ/, and some speakers pronounce the second o with a sound more like the French [ɔ] or at least the British English /ɒ/.
17. prolapse
    The vowel sound in the prefix – unlike words such as collapse – is not normally reduced to /ə/.
18. proletarian
    As in the case of profiterole (see note 16) the e in this word is not a magic E; the word has five syllables.
19. small-holder and small-holding
    These two escape the exclusion given in note 7 because what is held is not (except comparatively) small, and in any case the object of comparison – a farm – is not expressed.
20. stronghold
    This escapes the exclusion given in note 7 because the object of the holding (typically a building) is not specified; what is held is a position of strength.
21. threefold
    This is the sole representative of compound words constructed with the suffix -fold.
22. tollgate
    This is the sole representative of compound words constructed with the prefix toll-.
23. townsfolk
    This escapes the exclusion made in note 8 because – unlike menfolk and youngfolk – the suffix -folk is not simply added to the defining noun/adjective.
24. troll
    Also heard with /ɒ/. Both pronunciations are both common and acceptable.
25. wholly
    Compare sole/solely (both in the Magic E section).

OL factory

This post contains the first of the *OL* sounds, of which there are many more than for *IL*  –  8 or 9 (depending on  whether you give chocolate 2 syllables or 3; in fact the advertiser‘s chocolatey definitely has 3 syllables and not 4.)

First draft of "ol" >  /ɒl/ notes

1. alcoholism
   The Macmillan English Dictionary gives this transcription. but the audio sample has the vowel sound /ə/.
2. bankroll [Must check this –  should be /əʊ]
   This is the sole representative of the many compound nouns formed by the addition of -roll. In this case adding another noun has produced a new verb too: to bankroll something (usually a project of some kind) is to make it possible by making funds available.
3. bollocking
   The Macmillan English Dictionary also gives bollock as a verb. It is rarely used, except in this -ing form. The British National Corpus records 15 instances of the word, with 12 having the meaning harsh criticism. There are also 15 instances of bollock, but only two of these are verbs, and only one of those has the relevant meaning; the other must be a regional usage – with the apparent meaning grumble.
4. choleric
   The Macmillan English Dictionary gives two American pronunciations, one with stress on the second syllable. In this case the first vowel-sound is /ə/. The same dictionary gives only one pronunciation, marked British. But the version with stress on the second syllable is common in the UK and widely accepted.
5. colitis
   The Macmillan English Dictionary gives this transcription. but the audio sample has the vowel sound /ə/.
6. Collect
   This is the noun (which is not in Macmillan English Dictionary; the link is to the Collins English Dictionary). The verb – and, in American English, adverb (in the collocation "call collect") – is in the *OL* > /ə/ section.
7. colleen
   This borrowing from Irish Gaelic is transcribed with this vowel, although its stress – in regular British English – would normally suggest a /ə/ in the first syllable. And the audio sample on the CD-ROM follows this suggestion.
8. colloquy
   The Macmillan English Dictionary does not include this word, but several other dictionaries do. The link is to the Collins English Dictionary.
9. consolatory
   The Macmillan English Dictionary gives this transcription. but the audio sample has a very slight (almost non-existent) /ə/, as primary stress is placed on the first syllable (also unlike the transcription). The pronunciation with /ə/ in the first syllable and primary stress on the second is common but is on the decline. As is often the case when a pronunciation is dying out, many of its users regard it as in some sense correct (following the "argument" often heard in language circles that what used to be customary is necessarily the only option).
10. décolleté
    The Macmillan English Dictionary transcribes this with only three syllables, but the audio sample has a clear /ə/ after the /l/. Both pronunciations are both acceptable and common.
11. dissolve
    Students of English for Speakers of Other Languages should note that the written letters "ss" represent /z/, whereas in dissolute (see the /ə/ section) the same letters represent /s/.
12. molecule
    Students of English for Speakers of Other Languages should note that there is no Magic E affecting the first syllable, and that this word has three syllables – /‘mɑlɪkju:l/.
13. pink-collar
    Note that this is not in any way an opposite of blue-collar, except in the sense that a blue-collar worker has tended, historically, to be male.
14. polka 
    The Macmillan English Dictionary gives this transcription (and a corresponding audio example), but for the collocation "polka dot" (which has no separate transcription), the audio sample has a suggestion of the vowel-sound /əʊ/. Both pronunciations are acceptable.
15. polyandry
    This is the sole representative of the many compound words (and neologisms) that use the prefix poly-.
16. resolve
    Macmillan English Dictionary gives one transcription and a corresponding audio sample, with the stressed syllable /zɒlv/, and to make a firm decision as the primary meaning. Other dictionaries differ; Collins English Dictionary, for example, gives to solve a problem as the primary meaning, with to make a firm decision as the sixth of fourteen verbal meanings. Although both these dictionaries use the same /z/ pronunciation, some speakers use /z/ for making a decision and /s/ (with /ri:/ in the first syllable) for to solve again. In the expressions resolve an equation and resolve a dispute/problem/disagreement..., the /z/ pronunciation is correct.
17. troll
    Also heard with /əʊ/. Both pronunciations are common and acceptable.
18. vol-au-vent
    Note that the second syllable is just /ə/.
19. volte-face
    This is unlike the (unrelated) word volt (derived from the Italian name Volta – see the /əʊ/ section). It is interesting, and no doubt confusing for students of English for Speakers of Other Languages, that the word with no final E has the sound /əʊ/, while the one with final E has the sound /ɒ/.

ill-met

This post contains the rest of the *IL* sounds; there are only four altogether – these three and the third of last month's tranche.

First draft of "il" >  /aɪl/ notes

1. childhood and godchild
   These two are each (one as a prefix and one as a suffix) representative of the many compound words that use the affix "child".
2. facile and facileness
   Note that the American pronunciation of the adjective, ending /əl/, is increasingly to be heard in the UK. The derived noun is facileness (which does not, in British English, mean the same as facility). The link is to the Collins English Dictionary.
3. mileometer
   This is the sole representative of the compound words that start mile-.
4. resile
   The Macmillan English Dictionary does not include this word, but other dictionaries – for example, the Collins English Dictionary – do.
5. wildcat
   This escapes the general exclusion given in note 7 because the word wildcat (in collocations uch as wildcat strike) does not have the common (animal) sense – or does, but only in a figurative sense (of something hard to control).
6. wildfire
   This escapes the general exclusion given in note 7 because the fire is wild only in the figurative sense that early hominids tamed it.
7. wildfowl
   This is the sole representative of the many compound words that have wild- prrepended. Individual notes explain the exceptions.
8. wild-goose chase
   When Shakespeare put this expression in the mouth of Mercutio (in the first recorded use), he was probably referring to a certain kind of horse-race, with a leading horse being followed by other riders in the V-shape typical of migrating geese. When used today, it refers more directly (although figuratively) to the notion of chasing after wild geese. (It seems to me that this change in meaning may have been influenced, in days when Latin was more widely studied, by an awareness of the fact that a mission to find the solution to a question that has no anser [=Latin, "goose"] was vain; but there is no documentary proof of this – which, I admit, smacks of folk-etymology.)

First draft of "il" >  /əl/ notes

1. annihilate
Note that the second syllable has the /aɪ/ vowel and the h is silent.


2. bedevil[l]ed
   The Macmillan English Dictionary gives only the American spelling (with a single l), but several other dictionaries do –  for example, the Collins English Dictionary.
3. cartilage
   Sic in The Macmillan English Dictionary but the same dictionary gives "cartilaginous" with an /ɪ/. Either vowel is both acceptable and common.
4. family, peril, perilous, perilously, privilege, privileged, sacrilege, sacrilegious, scurrilous, stepfamily (etc), syphilis, weevil
   The Macmillan English Dictionary gives this pronunciation but some dictionaries – for example, Collins English Dictionary – give /ɪ/. Either vowel is both acceptable and common.
5. pastille
   The Macmillan English Dictionary gives this pronunciation, but other dictionaries give /ɪ/. One of these, Collins English Dictionary, reserves this pronunciation for the word pastel. A pronunciation with the vowel /i:/ in the second syllable is also acceptable; in this case the stress is sometimes on the second syllable.
6. pencil, probabilistic, simile
   The Macmillan English Dictionary gives this transcription, but the audio sample has a hint of /ɪ/ – a pronunciation that is widely used.
7. penciled, penciling
   The Macmillan English Dictionary does not give a version with a double l, but many dictionaries – for example, Collins English Dictionary – do.
8. pupil and utensil
   The Macmillan English Dictionary gives this pronunciation but some speakers use /ɪ/. Either vowel is both acceptable and common.
9. Savile Row
   Note the pronunciation; /ɪ/ (not /aɪ/, as a student of ESOL might expect) is also common. The pronunciation with /ə/ matches the American English pronunciation of some other "-ile" words, such as "hostile" and "missile".
10. similarity, similarly
    The Macmillan English Dictionary has this, but similar is transcribed with /ɪ/ (though, as the note to that word suggests, either pronunciation is acceptable; in fact, in an unstressed syllable, there is scarcely any difference. The Macmillan English Dictionary suggests that the pronunciation with /ɪ/ is American, though it is common also in the UK.
11. tonsil
    The Macmillan English Dictionary gives this pronunciation but some speakers use /ɪ/ – especially in a context that includes words such as tonsillectomy or tonsillitis (which the same dictionary transcribes with an /ɪ/). Either vowel is both acceptable and common.
12. underprivileged
    This is the sole representative of the many words that use under- as a prefix.

First draft of "il" >  /i:l/ notes

1. automobile
   This is the sole representative of compound words formed with -mobile as a suffix. ESOL students should note that this -mobile does not have the /ɑɪ/ vowel used in the word mobile. (The stress is also different.)
2. chenille and déshabillé
   The double l, as in some French and most Spanish borrowings, represents a /j/. Unlike some French borrowings (typically, but not always, ending -lle , the pronunciation is sometimes partly Anglicized with /i:l/ phonemes (rather than /i:j/ , which is also sometimes heard [with no trace of an /l/ sound] ). In other cases (Cadillac, espadrille, fusillade, grille, pastille, Nashville, quadrille, and vaudeville), the Anglicization has gone further and the sound is /ɪl/ or /əl/.
   
   In Spanish borrowings (typically ending -lla or -llo), the pronunciation is often fully Anglicized with /ɪl/ phonemes (rather than /i:j/). An example of this, not in the Macmillan English Dictionary but in several others (such as the Collins English Dictionary) is cigarillo. See, for contrast, tortilla.


3. filo pastry
   The Macmillan English Dictionary transcribes this with the /i:/ vowel, but the audio sample is /ɪ/. A fully Anglicized pronunciation with the /ɑɪ/ phoneme is also common. As often with foreign borrowings, the pronunciation is very variable.
4. kilo
   The freestanding word (a noun) has the vowel sound /i:/, but see also the /ɪ/ section for the adjectival prefix (kilo-).