Buzz
English spelling has always been odd. From the first time we encounter the silent “e” in school, we realize that pronunciation and spelling don't always align the way we expect. Soon, we start accepting quirks like how “eight” sounds like “ate,” “of” sounds like “love,” and “to” sounds like “too” and “two.” We might briefly pause to wonder about these oddities, but we quickly accept that it probably has something to do with history, language evolution, and sound changes over time. English, right? We just roll with it.
Yet, sometimes English goes beyond quirky and does something so bizarre we just can’t ignore it. That’s when we have to stand tall, place our hands on our hips, and ask: what’s up with the word 'colonel'?
'Colonel' is pronounced the same as 'kernel.' How did that happen? It all comes down to borrowing from two different sources. In the 1500s, English took many military terms from French, like cavalerie, infanterie, citadelle, canon, and coronel. The French had borrowed these words from the Italians, who were masters of warfare at the time, and in doing so, they altered the Italian 'colonello' into 'coronel.'
Why did this happen? It’s a phenomenon called dissimilation—when two identical sounds are close together in a word, one of them gets changed to something different. In this case, the first “l” was swapped out for an “r.” A similar process occurred with the Latin word peregrinus (pilgrim), where the first “r” turned into an “l” (now it’s peregrino in Spanish and Pellegrino in Italian. English adopted the “l” version for pilgrim.)
After the dissimilated French coronel entered English, in the late 16th century, scholars began translating Italian military works into English. Influenced by the original Italian spellings, people started using “colonel.” By the mid-17th century, the “l” spelling became the norm, but the “r” pronunciation lingered (eventually losing a syllable, shifting from kor-o-nel to ker-nel). Both forms were used for a time, and confusion grew when some believed “coronel” had something to do with “crown”—occasionally translating “colonel” as “crowner.” In truth, the origin is colonna, meaning column in Italian.
Meanwhile, the French returned to using “colonel” in both spelling and pronunciation. English, however, steps back, hands on hips, and asks, how dull is that?
