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“Reckon old Dill’ll be coming home tomorrow.” (Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird)

How do you pronounce ‘ll after ll? (Would you let me get the IPA (phonetic alphabet))

Listenever
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    I'm surprised this has a close vote already. This particular instance is from a classic in American literature, but the answer could be useful to anyone else who wants to use this same construction in the future ("There goes Jack; watch, Jill'll come tumbling down at any moment.") – J.R. Apr 18 '13 at 09:19
  • Me too! It is a real constructive question. I learned a new thing by this. – Persian Cat Apr 18 '13 at 10:51
  • @J.R. I guess that the users who voted to close think this only happens in few cases. – apaderno Apr 18 '13 at 13:42
  • @kiamlaluno: It wouldn't necessarily be restricted to names of people, either. I heard a financial analyst on the radio today; he said, "I think Apple'll be up next quarter, but Dell'll be down." (Mind you, I wouldn't write it that way, unless the analyst had enunciated it that way, but it's still an interesting question, I think.) – J.R. Apr 18 '13 at 19:05
  • @J.R. I find it interesting too, also because I think few English learners would know how to pronounce that. – apaderno Apr 18 '13 at 19:08

2 Answers2

14

Since it's a contraction of Dill will it's "Dill-ull" (ull as in full) and run together with no pause.

/'dɪlʊl/

Jim
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    This is the “correct” way to say it. But in fact, in my part of the country (which is Harper Lee’s), the /l/ in “Dill” would be reduced to a ʊ-glide unless followed by a syllable beginning with a vowel; so we’d actually say /'dɪʷl/. – StoneyB on hiatus Apr 18 '13 at 12:34
  • @StoneyB- Agreed. – Jim Apr 18 '13 at 14:45
  • @StoneyB: I think for the quoted example I'd be more inclined to pronounce it as something closer to "Dill luh", though with other words I might alter the consonant of the main word and keep the ending of "will". – supercat Oct 02 '14 at 16:04
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Wiktionary says 'll is pronounced /əl/, [əl], [l̩], [ɫ̩], [ʊ], [ɯ], i.e. phonemically it's /əl/ and phonetically it's one of [əl], [l̩], [ɫ̩], [ʊ], [ɯ] (possibly an incomplete list) depending on your variety of English.

To me, [ɫ̩] is a cross between [l] and [w], so a "w" coloured "l". [w] is a semivowel and is related to [u], which [ʊ] and [ɯ] are similar to. So all the sounds are similar, the main difference being vowel vs. schwa with consonant vs. syllabic consonant.

So Dill'll is pronounced /'dɪləl/, with the exact pronunciation depending on your variety of English.

CJ Dennis
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