Why do people say caramel

According to Cambridge Dictionary , if you're from the UK, you likely put more emphasis on the "care" part of the word and pronounce it like care-a-muhl. In the U. You see, the word caramel is derived from the 18th-century Spanish turned French word caramelo , which is pronounced as car-a-mello.

So, North American English speakers adopted the "car" pronunciation from the original word, whereas British speakers tend to pronounce caramel as "care-a-muhl. Joshua Katz , a doctoral student in linguistics at N. So yes, our English word is essentially the same as the French word, pronounced "care-a-melle".

Despite it's foreign roots, I wanted to end the debate about the American pronunciation of the word caramel. So even if the French pronounce it as care-a-melle emphasis on the "elle" , is that really how it's pronounced in English? The differences between pronunciation have to do with where you are from.

The Cambridge Dictionary supports two correct English pronunciations of the word caramel. There is a word where a similar syncopated pronunciation is, as far as I know, universal for American English speakers: squirrel. I don't know of any other examples besides these two, though. I don't know what caused these pronunciations to be established only in North America. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top.

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Learn more. Why do North Americans pronounce "caramel" as "carmel"? Ask Question. Asked 4 years, 9 months ago. Active 1 year, 1 month ago.

Viewed 54k times. Why is that? Can this difference in pronunciation be traced to a root cause? Improve this question. Glorfindel Bohemian Bohemian 1, 3 3 gold badges 16 16 silver badges 26 26 bronze badges.

Comments are not for extended discussion; they are to seek clarification of the post. The sticky, sweet treat that's not only a pain in the ass to get out of your teeth but also a point of contention among friends, relatives and coworkers due to its dual pronunciation. Are you team ker-uh-muhl? Or are you team kar-muhl? Well, in honor of National Caramel Day April 5 , Werther's Original decided to settle the great debate with a national survey.