How come the word colonel is pronounced kernel?

Answer 1

Lieutenant is not pronounced LEFTENT, idiot. It's pronounced lu-TEN-ant.

I could answer this for you. I'm not sure why it's spelled thusly, perhaps it has to do with the French spelling. In Spanish it's closer: Coronel.

The French introduced the word from the Romans to the English in two ways: Colonel and Coronel. The latter caught on in pronunciation, but later on, people liked to look fancy and spell it like the French and spelled it Colonel. The English back then, in the Middle English stage of the language, didn't write a lot, and when they did, they spelled things strangely: the French influences and their original Anglo-Saxon language roots combined and the spelling was different constantly, from book to book.

For example, Shakespeare wrote his name several different ways: Shakespeer, Shakespear, Cheykspurr... or something like that.

The spelling Colonel may have stuck, but due to the strangeness of the English language (which explains all the pronunciation rules, such as "gh" -- silent or "f"-sounding) many words have shifted and the perhaps the other syllable got lost somewhere.

All in all, Colonel is a strange word, yet Lieutenant I see no problem in, because of its clear pronunciation -- like the word "lieu" (used in English in the phrase "in lieu of" to mean "in place of" or "instead of", rarely used on its own) is pronounced right, so what's the problem.

Relatively good question.

Answer 2

In modern English, the word Colonel is pronounced similarly to kernel (of grain) as a result of having entered the language from Middle French in two competing forms, dissimilated coronel and colonel. The more conservative spelling colonel was favored in written use and eventually became the standard spelling even as it lost out in pronunciation to coronel.

Answer 3

Well friend....thats the mystery and magic of english language... one just cannot ask why such-n-such spells in one way and pronounce in another way, because no one can supply you satisfactory answer to such queries. As like "colonel" there is also "Lieutnant"...but we pronounce it as "Leftnant".... there is "column" but we never utter "n" while pronouncing.

Answer 4

Honestly, y'all make me ashamed to be American. Leftenant is the British pronunciation...duh.

Answer 5

It is just one of the idiosyncrasies of the English language.

Answer 6

George Bernard Shaw said that 'ghoti' is pronounced 'fish.' 'gh as in 'laugh,; 'o' as in 'women and 'ti' as in 'station'.

Answer 7

Lieutenant is not prounounced "leftnant"... where are you people from? It's pronounced loo-ten-ent.

Answer 8

for the same reason "lieutenant" is pronounced "leftenant"

Answer 9

now thats funny Yakky m