Pronouncing Route

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Sean from San Diego.

Well, hello, Sean. How are you?

How are you, Sean? What’s up?

Well, you know, I’m an English teacher to speakers of other languages.

Great.

And some time ago, I was doing a phonetic thing, and I was showing them on the board the word out, and then the word shout, and so forth.

And then I get down to route.

And then I added an E to route just to tell them that now it’s root.

That means something quite different.

Guess what?

Over time here, I’ve noticed that root has been routed by route.

Well said.

You have A Way with Words.

And I was wondering, when did this happen?

Why did this happen?

And is it just here in the U.S.?

And, Sean, are you upset about it?

Well, yes, I am.

I mean, I learned my English many years ago, perhaps decades ago, in various countries, and I do pronounce it root.

So I hate to see root get routed, especially with students who are now looking at me with big question marks over their heads.

Well, you’ve probably talked to them before about dialects and variable pronunciation, difference, for example, between British and American speech, right?

True.

Yeah. This is one of those examples where within a country you have differences of speech.

Route and root are both very common pronunciations of the word. They battle it out. You’ll find that root, as a pronunciation of R-O-U-T-E, is more common generally in the Northeast and the Atlantic seaboard, while route is more common in places like Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio. But they are scattered across the country. You’ll find little pockets or individuals even who say one or the other everywhere in the country.

Is there a reason for that? Because it does cause confusion if you say the enemy was routed.

It sure does. I mean, both versions, both pronunciations of that word have double meanings, don’t they? I mean, root, like the bottom of a plant, and rout, routing the enemy, like you said. I mean, either way you go, I mean, we’re sort of at a the fork in the root pronunciation-wise, or fork in the route.

I mean, really, Grant?

Should you accent?

Well, there’s not that much room for confusion unless you want to make confusion.

The context is almost always clear here.

Yeah, but there’s really no one preferred pronunciation over the other.

No, there isn’t, not in the United States.

Now, I understand in the U.K., root is the standard pronunciation, and route only generally exists in military circles.

Well, and I’m thinking about that State Road No. 66.

I mean, would anybody call that Route 66?

No, they wouldn’t.

That would destroy a bit of history, wouldn’t it?

It would.

Well, Sean, I guess you’ve got something you can tell your students now.

Just explain to them that, well, here’s, you know, English has some rules, but they’re inconsistent.

And here’s another exception for you.

Okay, well, I thank you very much.

All right, Sean.

Take care, Sean.

Pleasure talking with you.

You’ve had a great show, and I follow it.

Oh, wonderful.

Thanks.

Take care.

All right.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

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