Why is "colonel" pronounced [kernal]?

Answer 1

The basic answer is "blame it on the French!"

Contrary to what some think, the English did NOT "mess up the French word". The change to "r" happened in the Romance languages and was borrowed into English. A few details are unclear but it all went something like this:

1) The earlier name for this officer was "colonnello", a form found in Old Italian and going back to Latin for "line commander" (through "colonna", meaning "line" from Latin "columna" [cf. "column"]; the Latin name of the officer was columnellus).

2) In Spain, around 1505 (under King Ferdinand), we find an altered form of this word -- "coronel" (which is STILL the Spanish word for "colonel").

How this Spanish form came about is explained as either

a) it was deliberatelyl created/altered to mark the person as an officer of the "crown", i.e., the king (Spanish for "crown" is "corona"); some say this came from confusion about the word's origins
http://www.history.navy.mil/trivia/triv4-5i.htm

OR
b) it was just an example of "dissimilation" -- a natural sound change in which one of two similar or identical sounds in the same word changes.
http://www.yourdictionary.com/library/alike1.html

Shifts of one L in a word to R in Latin and Romance languages are well-known (we see it, for instance, in the adjective ending -al, which becomes -al after words ending with L; thus we have "orbit" > "orbital" but "module" > "modular".. just try saying "modulal" and you'll understand why it was changed!)
http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=225168
http://cspeech.ucd.ie/~fred/teaching/oldcourses/phonetics/rules1.html

(My take --very likely, "coronel" came about by dissimilation, and was THEN re-interpreted [not invented] as related to "crown")

3) By 1538 the English are using the word "coronel", borrowed either directly from the Spanish, or from Middle French. By a slight shortening of the vowels (a common enough change) it soon is pronounced /kern'l/. This continues to be THE pronunciation in English.

Meanwhile, the FRENCH shift BACK to "colonel"
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-col1.htm

(In other words, if you can't see it coming... "the FRENCH are to blame!!")

4) Later (in the 17th century) the form "colonel" was borrowed from Modern French. This was apparently an effort to go back and get the "correct" etymological form. For a time BOTH written forms -- "coronel" and "colonel" -- are found in English, but eventually in the 19th century the pedants who do this succeed in establishing the "correct spelling" as "colonel". BUT they do NOT succeed in getting people to change from the established English pronunciation /kern'l/.

(In other words, the real shift here was adopting the Modern French spelling "colonel". The problem is NOT from the English "messing up" a French word, but because English grammarians showed RESPECT for the French!)


(Variations in details, but the basic explanation is the same)
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/colonel
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-col1.htm
http://alphavocabadorka.tribe.net/thread/d2116197-d74d-4b97-aa04-ec64239714b7
http://www.strategypage.com/cic/reader.asp?target=CIC-01-06

Answer 2

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.

Answer 3

Maybe because 'lieutenant' is pronounced as 'leftenant', just kidding, I too always wondered about this, and am waiting to read the correct answer
i just got this, read it
COMBAT Magazine Library: Why is the Colonel Called Kernal?
Epaulettes and Shoulder Straps. Warrant Officer. Ensign ... Lieutenant Commander. Commander. Colonel and Lieutenant Colonel. Navy Captain. Commodore. Admiral ...www.combat.ws/S4/LIBRARY/COLONEL.HTM - 71k - Cached - More from this site
WHY IS "COLONEL" PRONOUNCED LIKE ... - BestAndWorst.com
WHY IS "COLONEL" PRONOUNCED LIKE "KERNEL"? SHOULDN'T IT BE ... colonels are nuts (kernal.nut joke.oh forget it) ...www.bestandworst.com/v/?id=33842

Answer 4

It's because the spelling of the word hasn't changed to match it's pronunciation. Most likely it used to be spoken a different way.

Answer 5

Because its not pronounced "Colonel"....:)

Answer 6

alot of words in english aren't spelt phonetically (the way they sound) eg, enough, through and thorough.
words do change in pronunciation through time aswell, so it may have roots in another word.