The Answer to One of Life's Many Questions: Why Colonel Doesn't Have an "R"

If you have been following my blog for awhile, all two of you may remember a blog post I made awhile ago about spelling, and I complained about the missing 'r' in colonel. For the rest of you, I'll be nice and give you a link so you know what I am talking about. 

Ok, now that you are back from reading my old post, I can move on. 

The other day I was reading The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way (this has become one of my new favorite books. Yes, I do have very weird interests) and I came to the chapter on spelling. Much to my great excitement, this absolutely amazing book explained about why there is no 'r' in colonel!!!!!!! Now, I am going to pass this splendid bit of information on to you. 

"Colonel...comes from the old French coronelle, which the French adapted from the Italian colonello...When the word first came into English in the mid-sixteenth century, it was spelled with an r, but gradually the Italian spelling and pronunciation began to challenge it. For a century or more both spellings and pronunciations were commonly used, until finally...we settled on the French pronunciation and Italian spelling." 

See! I knew the French had something to do with it!

A couple of other interesting fact that I learned from the chapter on spelling:

1) For the longest time people didn't care at all about consistent spelling. In fact, in some cases they would  spell the same word two different ways in the same letter. Why can't things be like that now?

2) During the early 1900's there  was a movement to simplify spelling in the US. The Simplified Spelling Board released a list of 300 words that were commonly spelled two different ways (like judgement and judgment) and endorse the simpler spelling. They were able to get the support of National Education Association and President Theodor Roosevelt, and actually succeed in changing the way words like catalog and program were spelled. Sadly, WWI happened and so a great movement died before it could do any real good.

Well, I think I have thrown enough useless facts at you for one day.

Until next time, au revoir.

~Nat

P. S. I apologize for the fact that I haven't posted for a really long time. Unfortunately there is this thing called life, and it takes up a lot of my time. But I shall endeavor to improve, and post something about once a week. We shall see if I can manage it.