Why pronounced colonel

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. Both pronunciations were in play for a while, and adding to the confusion was the mistaken idea that "coronel" was etymologically related to "crown" — a colonel was sometimes translated as "crowner" in English. In fact, the root is colonna , Italian for column. Meanwhile, French switched back to "colonel," in both spelling and pronunciation.

English throws its shoulders back, puts its hands on its hips and asks, how boring is that? Skip to header Skip to main content Skip to footer Feature. If the earth disappeared, what would happen to the moon?

Richard Grant Farmers Branch, Texas. Not much, actually. Lunar libration—the very slow wobbling caused by the gravitational locking between the moon and the earth—would stop. But the moon would still rotate each month and orbit the sun.

Latest News. Here's the key difference, official says. This may be your best bet for spotting it early. These could be bringing pests into your cellar. Data shows who's most dangerous behind the wheel. Six supplements are being pulled from stores. Many states have a long road ahead. Most American English dialects are "rhotic," whereas "Received British Pronunciation" RPR is "non-rhotic," which means that there are many cases where a Brit will not pronounce the letter r except when it is followed by a vowel sound.

As a result, words pronounced in many dialects of American English as having an "r-colored vowel" e. However, British dialects are varied: Despite the growing influence of non-rhotic RPR over the last several centuries, rural dialects in the west of the British Isles are still rhotic.