Thread: how do you pronounce the word colonel in British English?

how do you pronounce the word colonel in British English?

I was sitting in on an English for Russian speakers class, and the
teacher (who was not a native English speaker) was telling her
student to pronounce this word like колонель.
I told her it is pronounced like кернал or "kernal".
How is this word pronounced in British English.

We were taught to say 'kernal' and know that it's a British variant.

Code:

...was telling her student to pronounce this word like колонель.

That's exactly how we were taught to pronounce "colonel" back in school: ~ "каланел". It's wrong on both sides of the pond, isn't it?

Originally Posted by Rtyom

We were taught to say 'kernal' and know that it's a British variant.

No-o-o. British vаriant is without "r" sound, something like "кён(э)л" (I'm judging by the British films )
American variant seems to have a distinct "r", and sometimes sounds to me almost like "кёрэл".

I never meant 'r' in there since 'r' is a mute sound. My bad.

That's a tough one.

"Kernel" is probably the closest approximation, but...

Both the Es are pronounced more like the U in "null", almost as a schwa, a vowel without any real value and a difficult one for foreigners to hear. For a Russian, it's probably pronounced about half way between кернел and курнул.

And in many British accents, R isn't pronounced in that position, it just extends the preceding vowel sound.

In the US it is definitely "kernel".