Colonel and Column

Who doesn’t wonder about the spelling of <colonel>? I mean, really, how did THAT ever happen that there is no <r> in <colonel>? Well, there is a very interesting story about this word. Of course, many words have interesting stories and those with the most seemingly bizarre spellings have the most interesting of them all to tell. I created a video to help with this explanation.

The first part of the investigation is looking at where <colonel> derives. As you see from the video it derived from French with roots traveling through Italian and Latin. The meaning distinction of <colonel> was that this was the leader of a new way of leading the troops in columns instead of lines. It created a different military tactic with both strengths and weaknesses. The French <coronnel> derived from Italian and Latin words for “column.”

The question still remains as to why it is not spelled with an <r> if that is how we are pronouncing it in English. Phonetics helps us with this answer. The process of dissimilation is whereby items become dissimilar. In historical phonetics, one of two similar sounds in a word becomes less like the other. An example would be when Old French <marbre> became English <marble>. This /l/ to /ɹ/ dissimilation is not uncommon and is often seen in our Spanish cognates such as <arbor> and Spanish for tree <árbol>.

Another factor in the word <colonel> is that around 1669, it had three syllabic units, but only two spoken syllabic units. This happens in English words such as <family> or <different> whereby the written and spoken syllabic units don’t match. This is not unusual in English, but unless you’ve done some study on these words it is typically not something people are conscious that they are doing.

Lastly is the connection of <colonel> to <column>. There is a clear connection in the formation of troops to a column, but the next pronunciation question is what about that <n> in <column>. The answer lies in the history of the word as it derives from Latin <columna> “pillar.” In the relatives <columnist> or even less common <columnar>, the <n> is being pronounced.