Vowels before L

I'm curious about vowels before L (as indicated by the title).

Do these word pairs rhyme (perfectly) for you:

1. "Mealy" and "freely"?
2. "Sailing" and "Skraeling" (the best I could think of - a Viking term for Inuits)?
3. "Holy" and "slowly"?

<<1. "Mealy" and "freely"?>>

Not perfectly, but not contrastive on a phonemic level. "mealy" is [mi5=i] while "freely" is more like [fr\ili] for me.

<<2. "Sailing" and "Skraeling" (the best I could think of - a Viking term for Inuits)?>>

I wouldn't know exactly how to pronounce "skraeling" as I'm not familiar with the term...."sailing" is [se5=iN] for me.

<<3. "Holy" and "slowly"?>>

Those seem to be the same for me.

<I wouldn't know exactly how to pronounce "skraeling" as I'm not familiar with the term...."sailing" is [se5=iN] for me.>>

Um...instead of "skraeling", try...maybe..."dayling" (little day)? Anything where the word is lexically composed of [something]+[ling] as opposed to [something]+[ing] as in "sailing".

As for me, I think I have a set of special "pre-l" vowels similar or identical to special "pre-r" vowels.

1. "Mealy" and "freely" don't rhyme for me. They might be [mI@5i]-[fr\i5i], or [mi@5i]-[fr\i:5i], but there is a difference between the vowels.

2. They're also different. It might be [sE@5IN]-[skr\eI5IN] or [se@5IN]-[skr\eI5IN].

3. Also different. Maybe [hO5i]-[s5oU5i] or [ho5i]-[s5oU5i].

Maybe I make these distinctions because I *don't* distinguish between clear and dark L's? Hmm...

For me:

1. No
2. I think they rhyme but I have never seen the second word
3. No

The all rhyme to me.

The dictionary pronunciation key (dictionary.com and Merriam-Webster) show all the pairs (skrealing is not English so it's not there) as having the same vowel sound.

For the people that said they don't rhyme, do these rhyme to you?

teal and steal
bowling and doling
fouls and jowls.

teal v steal - yes rhyme
bowling and doling - yes
fouls and jowls - yes

<<The all rhyme to me.

The dictionary pronunciation key (dictionary.com and Merriam-Webster) show all the pairs (skrealing is not English so it's not there) as having the same vowel sound.>>

But that's because dictionaries usually only show pronunciations on a phonemic level, and in that case those words don't differ on a phonemic level for me. However, if we're talking more technical, that's when I do have slight variations, this being due to differing ways the words are analyzed morphophonemically.

<<For the people that said they don't rhyme, do these rhyme to you?

teal and steal
bowling and doling
fouls and jowls.>>

Yes, those all rhyme perfectly for me, but those pairs all match morphophonemically whereas something like "mealy" and "freely" differ in that respect.

And come to think of it, in my original post I thought "holy" and "slowly" sounded the same as I say them, but I realize now that that's not exactly the case. While phonemically noncontrastive, my [o5] in "holy" is a bit backer and more rounded while "slowly" is a bit fronter, as it's behaving more in a fashion considering its morphological background, as open-position mid-back less rounded [o] plus [li], analyzed somewhat separately. Thanks for bringing this up, Lazar--I hadn't noticed this interesting (if subtle) in my speech before! :)

I should also mention that in "slowly," my production of the velarized alveolar lateral approximant [5] has a somewhat smaller degree of the velarization, but it's still there. I just transcribed it as [l] in "slowly" to demonstrate the fact that it's a bit "lighter" than the more velarized [5] in "holy." As you said, Lazar, I don't make distinctions between dark and light /l/ (I very well could have a velarized /l/ in most positions) but the degree of darkness does seem to depend on morphophonemic context.

My pronunciation of "holy" and "slowly" are slightly different:

holy = /holi/
slowly = /sloUli/

Noticeably, Lazar, also from New England, makes the same dipthong/monothong distinction. This may be a remnant of the region's initial settlers from East Anglia, since I believe the split occurs in that part of England as well.