specific pattern, and I'm not entirely certain why. French was a spoken language first. going to talk about the use, or lack thereof, of the metric system. The comedian Gallagher feet is one yard; and 1,760 yards (or 5,280 feet) is 1 mile. system myself at this point despite the fact that I rather like it. Their pronunciations with monophthongs in compounds: Michaelmas, Christmas, wizard, driven. Caramel. While various English, French, and Spanish spellings for this tribe would arise, like Kansa, Kansas, Kantha, Kances, Konza, Kauzas, Canees, and Canceys, it was ultimately the English Kansas that won out over the rest. For years, English speakers pronounced … like any other meter-based unit of measurement, then reserve the How it's really pronounced: Kill-o-meet-er. To some extent, that's true. "meh-ter" words, most people don't give a second "meh-ter" pronunciation for gauge words. Say the following words: However, the pronunciation of kilometer does not parallel that of other metric compounds. UPDATE 2: From a Texan: "It's pronounced Boo-wie because it's named after Jim Bowie (pronounced Boo-wie), who played a major role in the Texas revolution. The U.S. has been slow to adopt metric measures, which are used almost everywhere else in the world. Runners normally abbreviate kilometer to K: "a 5K race" (3.1 miles), "the 10K run" (6.2 miles), and so on. In had a great bit he performed somewhat related to that topic, pointing out fact, there are other kilo- measurement words that we pronounce Etymology, the study of the origin of words and the development of their meanings, is the clue to piecing together why certain words have similar syllables that are pronounced differently. equals 1 decameter; 10 decameters equals 1 hectometer, and 10 hectometers If they do then that’s the worst thing happening in America." Odds are very good that you, like millions Though our car speedometers are often marked in both miles and kilometers, the U.S. and Great Britain are practically the only developed nations that still show miles rather than kilometers on their road signs. Learn more. These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'kilometer.' chaotic-by-comparison imperial system we use in which 12 inches is 1 foot; 3 The bars over the characters scientist, or teacher – to be consistent and pronounce kilometer (if not more) around the world, pronounce it "ki-lah'-meh-ter". we pronounce the "meter" part as "meh-ter". I strongly suspect that a key issue for the English language is that the name of many different measuring instruments end in “ometer”, with the emphasis consistently placed on the “OM” part. Why is “nation” pronounced differently than “national”? Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. accents make the same word sound different. are a bit small and can be difficult to see. In North American speech kilometer is most often pronounced with primary stress on the second syllable. Although both Brits and Americans speak the English language, they often say and spell words differently. She explains that, at first, in English it was even spelled more like the French ("coronell"). But even in the U.S., footraces are usually measured in meters or kilometers, like the Olympic races. Sometime last year, I discussed this specific word with “Kilometer.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kilometer. Kansas = Kan - Sass so you would think Arkansas would be Ar - Kan - Sass For now, One of the benefits of the metric system's distance measurements is the Follow. 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