What is the correct pronunciation of the word "route"?

Solution 1:

Both pronunciations are used in the US, but only root in the UK.

Solution 2:

In my local dialect (Toronto, Canada), it is /ruːt/ for a roadway, and /raʊt/ (but that's very approximate; see Canadian raising ) for the act of specifying a path (and rowter for the computer networking device)

Solution 3:

It's a question of dialects. In the UK, it is pronounced as a homonym to root, as already been addressed. In America, it seems that those that pronounce it as a homonym to root are more concentrated on the east coast, as can be seen in a map (link below) visualizing the results of the Harvard Dialect Survey.

In a study of American dialects (link below), Stephanie Nicole Hedges finds that the probability to pronounce "route" as rhyming with "out" is 0.5 in New England, New York, and the Mid-Atlantic States, while it is 0.8 elsewhere in the USA.

Sources

• http://dialect.redlog.net/staticmaps/q_26.html
• https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/6480/

Solution 4:

In the UK, route is pronounced /ru:t/, rhyming with root. On the other hand, the pronunciation /raʊt/, rhyming with shout, is rout, meaning, among many other things, various kinds of gatherings of people (as a noun) and defeat (as a verb).

Solution 5:

US Midwest: I pronounce the noun 'root' when it's used to name a road ("Route 66"). If I am asking what roads you will take to get to Chicago, however, I ask, "What 'rowt' will you be taking?" And I might respond to a similar question by saying "The Triple-A 'rowted' me through La Crosse."

And the box that controls your internet traffic is a 'rowter'.

So 'root' (rhymes with "hoot") is used only as a "proper noun", and 'rowt' is used everywhere else.

(I suspect that the special treatment of named roads with "root" is due in large part to the TV show "Route 66" (1960-64), and the earlier (1946) song by the same name. This pronunciation permeated US culture in the 50s and 60s.)