>>37355093In US English, there are two distinct pronunciations of the word route, referring to a ‘way or course taken in getting from a starting point to a destination’. (In British English, the standard pronunciation rhymes with shoot and hoot.) For Americans, it is acceptable to pronounce the word as either rOOt or rOWt. According to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the latter pronunciation with a diphthong – a long vowel sound involving a transition from one vowel to another, as in words like ‘coin’ (OY) and ‘loud’ (OW) – dates back to the 18th century, but disappeared from British English during the 19th century, though it remained popular in North America.
