I’m guessing many of us who otherwise say “rowt” say “root” 66 because the song has taught us to.
I may be completely imagining this, but as I think about it, it seems that while I’m used to hearing route pronounced “root” by some Americans, it may be that that’s only when route is being used as a noun, but that when it’s a verb, it’s generally (in the US) “rowt.”
I'm not sure I've ever heard a numbered route pronounced "root" EXCEPT Route 66. Also it's not pronounced "root" as in the underground part of a plant because that has a different vowel, at least in these parts. Rhymes with foot, not boot.
I'm not sure I've ever heard a numbered route pronounced "root" EXCEPT Route 66. Also it's not pronounced "root" as in the underground part of a plant because that has a different vowel, at least in these parts. Rhymes with foot, not boot.
Is that limited to Route 66 or does it extend generally to other numbered highways?
Also it's not pronounced "root" as in the underground part of a plant because that has a different vowel, at least in these parts. Rhymes with foot, not boot.
Good point. In these parts (the American South), root rhymes with boot, not foot.
On the BBC lunchtime news today there was a pronunciation that for a moment threw me. This was a report on Chile, where there is an election going on and where General Pinochet's widow has just died. Two people, not just one, pronounced the country's name as Chi-lay with the emphasis very strongly on the second syllable. It rhymed with delay.
This is so odd that it wasn't until the newsreader mentioned General Pinochet's widow that I realised where they were talking about. One of the speakers is a BrEnglish speaker but in BrEnglish it's pronounced 'Chilly', a homophone with the word meaning cold and with 'chilli' the pepper. I've never heard it pronounced any other way before.
Initially I wondered if the BBC has randomly decided to educate us with what it has suddenly decided is the 'worthier/improved' version. However, even with my limited knowledge of Spanish is enough to know that neither Chilly nor Chi-lay have anything much in common with how it would be in Spanish. About half an hour later it occurred to me that perhaps Chi-lay is the US pronunciation, by analogy with the US versions of words like 'ballet' and 'plateau'.
So, my question - is it?
Or is there some other explanation, other than that for once, the BBC has actually got it wrong.
I'm fairly sure the Spanish is pronounced something like cheelé with the stress on the first syllable, but I don't know how the 'ch' is pronounced in Chile.
I'm not sure I've ever heard a numbered route pronounced "root" EXCEPT Route 66. Also it's not pronounced "root" as in the underground part of a plant because that has a different vowel, at least in these parts. Rhymes with foot, not boot.
Does your house have a roof (boot) or a ruf (foot)? I think I've always heard people who talk about tree ruts also talk about house rufs, but I'm not sure it's 100%.
I'm fairly sure the Spanish is pronounced something like cheelé with the stress on the first syllable, but I don't know how the 'ch' is pronounced in Chile.
I'm not sure I've ever heard a numbered route pronounced "root" EXCEPT Route 66. Also it's not pronounced "root" as in the underground part of a plant because that has a different vowel, at least in these parts. Rhymes with foot, not boot.
Is that limited to Route 66 or does it extend generally to other numbered highways?
I'll try again. I've never heard a numbered route pronounced "root" EXCEPT Route 66.
And the knife of the gentleman who died at the Alamo and rhymes with an American buoy.
Hmm They don't rhyme where I'm from. The nautical aid to navigation starts with "boo" like what ghosts say; the knife starts with "boh" like on a present.
I'm not sure I've ever heard a numbered route pronounced "root" EXCEPT Route 66. Also it's not pronounced "root" as in the underground part of a plant because that has a different vowel, at least in these parts. Rhymes with foot, not boot.
Does your house have a roof (boot) or a ruf (foot)? I think I've always heard people who talk about tree ruts also talk about house rufs, but I'm not sure it's 100%.
My house has a roof that has the same vowel sound as tooth or soup.
My house has a roof that has the same vowel sound as tooth or soup.
So not the vowel you use for root. I think you're the first person I've positively identified who does that.
(Tooth is another one that gets a short vowel in some accents, but clearly not yours. Actually, thinking about it, I have a colleague who pronounces soup with a short vowel.
I think pool is probably long for everyone, though. )
On the BBC lunchtime news today there was a pronunciation that for a moment threw me. This was a report on Chile, where there is an election going on and where General Pinochet's widow has just died. Two people, not just one, pronounced the country's name as Chi-lay with the emphasis very strongly on the second syllable. It rhymed with delay.
This is so odd that it wasn't until the newsreader mentioned General Pinochet's widow that I realised where they were talking about. One of the speakers is a BrEnglish speaker but in BrEnglish it's pronounced 'Chilly', a homophone with the word meaning cold and with 'chilli' the pepper. I've never heard it pronounced any other way before.
Initially I wondered if the BBC has randomly decided to educate us with what it has suddenly decided is the 'worthier/improved' version. However, even with my limited knowledge of Spanish is enough to know that neither Chilly nor Chi-lay have anything much in common with how it would be in Spanish. About half an hour later it occurred to me that perhaps Chi-lay is the US pronunciation, by analogy with the US versions of words like 'ballet' and 'plateau'.
So, my question - is it?
Or is there some other explanation, other than that for once, the BBC has actually got it wrong.
On the root/boot/roof thingy, IMHO this is probably where you get into whole-language vowel shifts, not simply individual words being weird. So a person who says root with the "oo" (like a ghost sound is probably going to pronounce roof with the same vowel, and so through an entire class of words. I know my Granddad pronounced these vowels differently (being from Tennessee) than I did (being a native Californian).
One of our local TV anchors is obviously from other parts of the US. He was doing a report on the icy condition of the roads tonight. He closed by saying "Drivers should be weary out there." Wife and I looked at each other and said, "Doesn't he mean wary out there?"
On the BBC lunchtime news today there was a pronunciation that for a moment threw me. This was a report on Chile, where there is an election going on and where General Pinochet's widow has just died. Two people, not just one, pronounced the country's name as Chi-lay with the emphasis very strongly on the second syllable. It rhymed with delay.
This is so odd that it wasn't until the newsreader mentioned General Pinochet's widow that I realised where they were talking about. One of the speakers is a BrEnglish speaker but in BrEnglish it's pronounced 'Chilly', a homophone with the word meaning cold and with 'chilli' the pepper. I've never heard it pronounced any other way before.
Initially I wondered if the BBC has randomly decided to educate us with what it has suddenly decided is the 'worthier/improved' version. However, even with my limited knowledge of Spanish is enough to know that neither Chilly nor Chi-lay have anything much in common with how it would be in Spanish. About half an hour later it occurred to me that perhaps Chi-lay is the US pronunciation, by analogy with the US versions of words like 'ballet' and 'plateau'.
So, my question - is it?
Or is there some other explanation, other than that for once, the BBC has actually got it wrong.
AFAIK it's CHI-lay. So split the difference.
That depends on how you're pronouncing the I in CHI.
It shouldn't be that diphthong commonly called a "long I" by many English speakers.
Couldn't parse what that means, as it refers to several vowels in the varying communities to which I belong. I myself mean the "eeeeee" sound when I say "Chile." (for the first vowel, the I, that is.)
I assumed he meant the sound of the pronoun I. I was taught in elementary school that that sound is the “long I,” as opposed to the “short I” of it.
Yeah. I was hedging because in phonetics, a long vowel is a version of the short vowel with longer duration. Because of the Great Vowel Shift English long vowels are mostly not longer versions of the short ones. To me, long A goes ah, long E goes air (without the r), long I goes 'ee', etc.
When I googled it, the pronunciation of Chile was given as CHEE-lay - or you can even listen to it on YouTube (link) should you think it's worth listening through the ads.
Comments
ETA: Not doubting you at all, just making sure I’m understanding you.
I may be completely imagining this, but as I think about it, it seems that while I’m used to hearing route pronounced “root” by some Americans, it may be that that’s only when route is being used as a noun, but that when it’s a verb, it’s generally (in the US) “rowt.”
But as I said, I may be imagining that.
Like my kids and pecan.
In UK English the computer connection is pronounced 'rooter' because it routes your communications, pronounced 'roots'.
Is that limited to Route 66 or does it extend generally to other numbered highways?
And yes, the North American "boo-y" for buoy is just as annoying to this unassimilated alien, too.
On the BBC lunchtime news today there was a pronunciation that for a moment threw me. This was a report on Chile, where there is an election going on and where General Pinochet's widow has just died. Two people, not just one, pronounced the country's name as Chi-lay with the emphasis very strongly on the second syllable. It rhymed with delay.
This is so odd that it wasn't until the newsreader mentioned General Pinochet's widow that I realised where they were talking about. One of the speakers is a BrEnglish speaker but in BrEnglish it's pronounced 'Chilly', a homophone with the word meaning cold and with 'chilli' the pepper. I've never heard it pronounced any other way before.
Initially I wondered if the BBC has randomly decided to educate us with what it has suddenly decided is the 'worthier/improved' version. However, even with my limited knowledge of Spanish is enough to know that neither Chilly nor Chi-lay have anything much in common with how it would be in Spanish. About half an hour later it occurred to me that perhaps Chi-lay is the US pronunciation, by analogy with the US versions of words like 'ballet' and 'plateau'.
So, my question - is it?
Or is there some other explanation, other than that for once, the BBC has actually got it wrong.
I like to ask my American friends why they don't call the property that buoys have "booeyancy"
Does your house have a roof (boot) or a ruf (foot)? I think I've always heard people who talk about tree ruts also talk about house rufs, but I'm not sure it's 100%.
It's Spanish, so like in English Church.
Good point. When we lived in Texas I never thought twice about Camp Bowie Boulevard in Fort Worth being pronounced "Boo-y". That's what it was called.
I'll try again. I've never heard a numbered route pronounced "root" EXCEPT Route 66.
Hmm They don't rhyme where I'm from. The nautical aid to navigation starts with "boo" like what ghosts say; the knife starts with "boh" like on a present.
My house has a roof that has the same vowel sound as tooth or soup.
So not the vowel you use for root. I think you're the first person I've positively identified who does that.
(Tooth is another one that gets a short vowel in some accents, but clearly not yours. Actually, thinking about it, I have a colleague who pronounces soup with a short vowel.
I think pool is probably long for everyone, though. )
For much the same reason Brits write glamour but not glamourous? Languages are inconsistent. It's what they do.
“Booyancy” is the normal pronunciation in my part of America.
BOY-un-see in these parts
Much as it would be here, but the "un" would be closer to just plain "n".
I'm pretty sure I've heard this called a "rowter."
AFAIK it's CHI-lay. So split the difference.
That depends on how you're pronouncing the I in CHI.
It shouldn't be that diphthong commonly called a "long I" by many English speakers.
Yeah. I was hedging because in phonetics, a long vowel is a version of the short vowel with longer duration. Because of the Great Vowel Shift English long vowels are mostly not longer versions of the short ones. To me, long A goes ah, long E goes air (without the r), long I goes 'ee', etc.
Almost always a diphthong in UK English.
Eye-beetha? What word is that in its usual spelling?
A Spanish island well-known for the club scene and drunken holidays.