How Do You Pronounce “Route”?

Hi there, you have A Way with Words. Hi, this is Mary Draven from Hayden, Idaho.

We’re glad to have you with us. What’s up? Well, I had this real inner just toil about people who replace the word route with root, saying they’re going to take a route to a destination. And I just believe it should be route. Like you have a paper route, you have a root of a tree or a hair root.

And I don’t. And so if you guys tell me that, yes, it’s OK to use the word root in place of route, then I will not be so verbally disgruntled.

So this is the way that you’ve always said it. Are you from Idaho?

I am.

-huh. Born and raised.

And it’s always been like you have a, like I said, paper route. You take a route for a destination, but a route is something that’s planted or rooted. You’re stationary, if you will.

Yeah, it’s not as straightforward as that, though, Mary. And I can get why it sounds odd to you, because we’ve got two different pronunciations that throughout the English-speaking world, neither one of them wins out completely.

So you’re a little unusual that in the Western United States, people are more likely to say root, but not always. And in the Southern and Midwestern U.S., people are more likely to say route. Both of these pronunciations are very common in the United States and Canada and the U.K. and Australia.

But in the U.S., route originally gained some ground in the 20th century, but route is becoming more accepted, possibly because of technology. The U.K. is also showing the influence of the American influence of route.

So the U.K., where route used to be very dominant, is getting a little more, a few more people saying route. It’s a little complicated, isn’t it, to explain.

But in general, there is some change happening here, but both are incredibly common and have been as long as we’ve tracked language.

Okay. Then my family can, I can bow down and not try to correct every news broadcast I hear.

Yeah. One of the things that’s influencing it is that usually in technology, the piece of equipment known as a R-O-U-T-E-R is called a router. And that is influencing people who might have otherwise said root.

I was thinking also in military context, isn’t it more often route than root?

Right. There are cultures of language in the military route, definitely. But you don’t say paper route.

Well, somebody might. One strange thing about this is that people often have both pronunciations in their lexicon and use both sometimes in the same conversation.

Okay. So I just need to tone down because it’s my cry. It’s like, no, you mean route.

Yeah, I think that’s the route to success here.

Okay. Route to your relaxation and satisfaction.

I’m still going to say route when I go to this.

Sure, yeah, and that’s totally fine. But give those people who say route, R-O-U-T-E, a break.

Okay, okay. I love, love your show. When my mom and I take a trip, she gets in the car and says, okay, put on our words until we listen to your podcast.

Always fine. I’ll tell your mom we said thanks and hello.

Thank you so, so much. Very much enjoyed.

Bye.

Bye.

Well, we’re rooting for a call from you. 877-929-9673 or send us an email.