RE: The Day The Routers Died

["David Harley" <david.a.harley () gmail com>]

> I don't know about political spin but I really enjoyed the song - with the
exception 
> of the pronunciation of the word "router". 
 
I'll ask the Queen to have it changed immediately. It's her English.
(Actually, I don't know anyone apart from what remains of the aristocracy
who speaks like the Royal Family: it's not "Oxford English" or RP, but let's
not go there.)
 
The "confusion" comes because you're quoting an American dictionary. If you
check OED rather than Websters, you'll see where we're coming from, but it
might increase your confusion.
 
Route came to English from Old French, and UK pronunciation is still closer
to the modern French "route" than the US pronunciation. "Root" as in "root
for" is used in the UK, but it's a fairly modern import from the US, and
probably derives from Norse via Middle English with the meaning you suggest.
Routing with an "ow" pronunciation in the UK comes from a variant form of
root (OE).

> Again, I've never heard ANYONE - be they American or English - refer to a 
> router (as in a Cisco router) as the equivalent of one who cheers or
roars. :) 
> Well, until now. 

You haven't heard it now, either. The usage you're quoting is US slang, not
native to UK English. 

In the UK, it's normal (correct, even) to pronounce it as if derives from
"route" pronounced "root" (approximately): however, some of us adjust our
pronunciation when talking to USians, or if we're over-exposed to US English
speakers in that context. Well, I don't. It would just sound absurd when my
natural accent is so un-American. Though I regularly slip into Ameringlish
when I type/write, probably because I generally write for American
publishers.

--
David Harley
AVIEN Interim Administrator: http://www.avien.org <http://www.avien.org/> 
http://www.smallblue-greenworld.co.uk
<http://www.smallblue-greenworld.co.uk/>  



 

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