Prononciation of Colonel

ronanos

Hi,

Im just wondering why Colonel is pronounced like kernel or kurnel and there is no R in the word? Shouldnt it be like colony with an l at the end?

Thanks,
Ronan

GhostInTheRuins

Interesting question and I've often wondered the same myself.

According to here:

Colonel comes from Old Italian colonello, commander of a column of troops, which in turn derives from colonna, column. It wasn't always spelled the Italian way, though. Four hundred years ago English followed the Spanish practice and spelled the word "coronel," sensibly pronounced the way it looked. Eventually this was corrupted to ker-nel.......Some nameless busybody decided coronel ought to be spelled "colonel" to better reflect its Italian origin

Antisocialiser

mystery solved. GG

mikemac

Can I hijack the thread?

Lef-tenant or lu-tenant

How do you pronouce Lieutenant?

HalloweenJack

http://www.allwords.com/word-leftenant.html

That's what I figured about colonel. Also, a Spanish teacher once told me that the English for "an orange" comes from the Spanish "naranja". Anyone know anymore about this?

grumula

lew-teh-nant

Jo King

grumula wrote: »

lew-teh-nant

That is the American pronouciation! On this side of the Atlantic is is pronounced as leftenant. The lieu comes from the French. As in "in lieu of". Tenant is the verb "to hold". A lieutenant "holds the place of". Hence Lieutenant Governor, Lieutenant General, Lieutenant Colonel etc.

tac foley

When I was commissioned, I was called a 'Leftenant', much later on, I was called a 'Leftenant Kernel'. At last, I thought with some justification, my reputation as a total nutter had been recognised.

tac

LordSutch

mikemac wrote: »

Can I hijack the thread?

Lef-tenant or lu-tenant

How do you pronouce Lieutenant?

Its Lef-tenant & Kernel in this part of the world.

slowburner

Jo King wrote: »

That is the American pronouciation! On this side of the Atlantic is is pronounced as leftenant. The lieu comes from the French. As in "in lieu of". Tenant is the verb "to hold". A lieutenant "holds the place of". Hence Lieutenant Governor, Lieutenant General, Lieutenant Colonel etc.

How did 'lieu' come to be pronounced 'leff', I wonder?

pickarooney

HalloweenJack wrote: »

http://www.allwords.com/word-leftenant.html

That's what I figured about colonel. Also, a Spanish teacher once told me that the English for "an orange" comes from the Spanish "naranja". Anyone know anymore about this?

I think it was Sanskrit originally but possibly imported to Europe via Spain (the fruit and the word). Most Western European languages use some form of the word with the exception of Swedish and Dutch who consider the fruit a Chinese Apple but the colour, synonymous with Holland, is called 'oranje' there, also the name of the royal family.

I've never figured out how they came to have this name and colour or even more perplexingly what did everyone call this colour before the fruit was discovered? What colour were pumpkins and the setting sun? (I think orange coloured carrots are a recent invention).

edit: Wikipedia to the rescue

Before this word was introduced to the English-speaking world, the colour was referred to as ġeolurēad (yellow-red).

suemartin

Interesting... Would love to know why it's pronounced "leff" tenant.
One I came across recently "featherstonehaugh" it's a surname but pronounced "fanshaw" apparently!

guerito

slowburner wrote: »

How did 'lieu' come to be pronounced 'leff', I wonder?

Always wondered about that too. From a quick dig on google, there's an Old French spelling of 'leuf' instead of 'lieu', which could be the source. But straightdope.com seems to think that the French pronunciation of the 'u' at the end of 'lieu' became bastardised into 'lief', then 'leff' in English.