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Why is the R silent in colonel?
Why is the word “colonel” pronounced with an “r” sound when it is not spelled with an “r”? “Colonel” came to English from the mid-16th-century French word coronelle, meaning commander of a regiment, or column, of soldiers. The English spelling also changed, and the pronunciation was shortened to two syllables.
How many syllables does colonel have?
Wondering why colonel is 2 syllables?
How do you pronounce colonel?
“Colonel” is pronounced just like “kernel.” How did this happen? From borrowing the same word from two different places. In the 1500s, English borrowed a bunch of military vocabulary from French, words like cavalerie, infanterie, citadelle, canon, and also, coronel.
What is the origin of the word colonel?
Colonel came into English, according to The Oxford English Dictionary, in the mid-16th century from Middle French, and there were two forms of the word then, coronel (or coronelle, akin to Spanish coronel) and colonel, the latter form more clearly reflecting its Old Italian antecedent, colonello (“column of soldiers,” …
What is the silent letter in the word colonel?
The silent letter in the word colonel is its third letter ‘l’. The phonetic transcription of the word given in the Oxford Dictionary is /ˈkəːn(ə)l/. It is quite readable that the word which has been omitted in the process of phonetic transcription is its third letter ‘l’. Therefore, ‘l’ becomes silent in this case.
What is the difference between lieutenant and leftenant?
As nouns the difference between lieutenant and leftenant is that lieutenant is (military) the lowest commissioned officer rank or ranks in many military forces while leftenant is an archaic spelling of lieutenant.
Why is the word “colonel” pronounced with an “r” sound?
Why is the word “colonel” pronounced with an “r” sound when it is not spelled with an “r”? “Colonel” came to English from the mid-16th-century French word coronelle, meaning commander of a regiment, or column, of soldiers. By the mid-17th century, the spelling and French pronunciation had changed to colonnel.
Why is it spelled Colonel instead of colonel in English?
English inherited the “l” version in pilgrim.) After the dissimilated French coronel made its way into English, late 16th century scholars started producing English translations of Italian military treatises. Under the influence of the originals, people started spelling it “colonel.”
When did the spelling of the word colonnel change?
By the mid-17th century, the spelling and French pronunciation had changed to colonnel. The English spelling also changed, and the pronunciation was shortened to two syllables. By the early 19th century, the current pronunciation and spelling became standard in English.
Where did the word ‘coronel’ come from?
In the 1500s, English borrowed a bunch of military vocabulary from French, words like cavalerie, infanterie, citadelle, canon, and also, coronel. The French had borrowed them from the Italians, then the reigning experts in the art of war, but in doing so, had changed colonello to coronel.