It is my understanding that L at the end of words has an OL sound. for intance, "real' is pronounced RI:OL. is that the case in words such as feel tunnel, spell, etc?
It's not an O sound to me- it's ree-uhl. Howewver, that does not mean that all words follow thisa pattern. Of the examples you give, 'spell' has a very different sound.
It only makes the L sound. Not always Ehl, Uhl, or Ohl. Or anything else. It alllll depends on the vowel before it.
So Real: Rele or Reel
Spell: Spehl
Tunnel: I don't know, maybe its my accent, but I always say this as "Tun-uhl" instead of the was it looks like its said "Tun-ehl". Anyone have a clue about this? Like I said, maybe its just my kentucky accent.
I always pronounce "--nel" words like "Nuhl".