The English Oracle

What is the correct pronunciation of the word "route"?

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Chapters
00:00 What Is The Correct Pronunciation Of The Word &Quot;Route&Quot;?
00:24 Answer 1 Score 17
00:34 Answer 2 Score 16
00:53 Answer 3 Score 5
01:13 Answer 4 Score 9
01:50 Thank you

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Tags
#pronunciation #pronunciationvsspelling #homophones

#avk47



ANSWER 1

Score 17


Both pronunciations are used in the US, but only root in the UK.




ANSWER 2

Score 16


In my local dialect (Toronto, Canada), it is /ruːt/ for a roadway, and /raʊt/ (but that's very approximate; see Canadian raising ) for the act of specifying a path (and rowter for the computer networking device)




ANSWER 3

Score 9


It's a question of dialects. In the UK, it is pronounced as a homonym to root, as already been addressed. In America, it seems that those that pronounce it as a homonym to root are more concentrated on the east coast, as can be seen in a map (link below) visualizing the results of the Harvard Dialect Survey.

In a study of American dialects (link below), Stephanie Nicole Hedges finds that the probability to pronounce "route" as rhyming with "out" is 0.5 in New England, New York, and the Mid-Atlantic States, while it is 0.8 elsewhere in the USA.

Sources




ANSWER 4

Score 5


In the UK, route is pronounced /ru:t/, rhyming with root. On the other hand, the pronunciation /raʊt/, rhyming with shout, is rout, meaning, among many other things, various kinds of gatherings of people (as a noun) and defeat (as a verb).