IPA phonetic symbol 〚l̩〛

The IPA phonetic symbol [l&#809;] (lowercase "L" with a small vertical line below) represents syllabic /l/, a syllable with no vowel (syllabic consonant), as in "people" [ˈpiːpl&#809;], "level" [ˈlevl&#809;] or "difficult" [ˈdɪfɪkl&#809;t]. In a broad notation [l&#809;] is /əl/: /ˈpiːpəl, ˈlevəl, ˈdɪfɪkəlt/. Some dictionaries write a small schwa as in   Others write no vowel, and the reader has to deduct that /l/ is in a syllable with no vowels:

Not all instances of /əl/ are pronounced [l&#809;]. For example, "several" is pronunced [ˈsevrəl]. In Teflpedia we are not concerned with details like this, and therefore we always use a broad notation: /əl/.

Common words

 * with "l": animal - financial - level - local - model - national [ˈnæʃ.ə.nl̩, ˈnæʃ.n&#809;.l&#809;, ˈnæʃ.nəl] - political - social - special - total - travel
 * with silent e: able - available - example - people - possible - table

[l&#809;] vs [əl]
Below we can see the pronunciation of /əl/ depending on the previous consonant according to the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary (OALD), Collins Dictionary for British English (CD-BE), and Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary (MWLD) for American English. Note that OALD uses [l] instead of [ḷ] or [əl].

Unicode and HTML
Unicode: U+0329 Combining vertical line below

HTML:
 * Hexadecimal: l&amp;#x329;
 * Decimal: l&amp;#809;