>>One of the worst spelled word in the English language (depending on where you live) has to be 'Colonel'. Where the heck's the 'R'?
>
>The lack of the "R" bothers you but not the fact that "colon" if pronounced "Ker". Does it
take a lot of guts to be a "colon-el"? :-)

I don't mean to be picky, but it's only the 'Colo' that is 'Ker' the 'n' is pronounced properly, as in 'colo-nel'. Well... ok, so I do mean to be picky.

>
>It seems that many words coming from the original French (where this word is pronounced correctly) get corrupted in English. Another rank, "lieutenant" is pronounced "left-tenant" in Britain. There is a stately home called "Beaulieu" -"bo-lyuh" you'd think? - no, "byew-lee". Go figure.

Hah, Britain!! Cholmondeley = Chumly???

There is an old thing about how to pronounce 'GHOTI'. It's pronounced 'fish'.

Take the GH from 'cough', the O from 'women', and the TI from 'nation' -> fish.