Vowel retraction before /l/

This process is noted here in advance because it is a general, pervasive feature. Wood (1987: 127–128) maintains that such retraction occurs across the social scale, as in WSAfE, so it probably also has prestige value. However, an ‘iotacised’ subvariant (e.g. self [sjælf]), occurring in Wood’s and my own data, is stigmatized.