How to pronounce "router"? English / German

Hiya
In this week's SZ Magazin's "Gewissensfrage: die Antwort von Dr. Rainer Erlinger" there is a question about the pronounciation of the word "router".
Question Text (from Page 11, SZ Magazin, 29th April 2004):
"Der im Zusammenhang mit Computernetzwerken gebräuchliche Begriff 'router' wird von amerikanischen Muttersprachlern korrekt 'rauter' ausgesprochen. Allerdings sagen viele Leute in Deutschland fälschlich 'ruhter', etwa so wie in 'route sixty-six'. Mich stört es nicht, wenn jemand den Begriff falsch ausspricht, aber wie soll ich antworten? Sage ich es meinen Gesprächspartner zuliebe ebenfalls falsch, sträubt sich mein Sprachempfinden, sage ich es richtig, würde mein Gegenüber dies vielleicht als Zurechtweisung empfinden. Was raten Sie mir? Benedikt H., Berlin"
The answer given is quite an interesting one and worth a read, particularly the end sentence: "Schließlich ist die Aussprache von Fremdwörtern kein Glaubensbekenntnis, sondern Teil der Kommunikation und damit eines Miteinanders." A sentiment which I would like to see more often in fact.
Anyway, back to the topic: do you say "rauter" or "ruhter"?
I must admit that I do not currently work in IT, no longer have North American colleagues and thus only ever hear the word in passing (pronounced "rauter" by Germans, pronounced "ruhter" by Brits/me).
Katrina

I'm guessing when you say "ruhter" its the same pronounciation as "rooter" cause thats the way I would pronounce it!!!

My Australian boyfriend just told me it's "rauter". I looked at him surprisingly, but then he said, "Because otherwise it's rude." Hah! Those wacky Australians and their slang.

I use:

ruhter for my router (IT)

and

rauter for my router(powertool)

genau

Also depends on your accent as to how each sounds.

I always find my self lacking when in the network room, and the american colleagues asks for the rauter, I have to go home and get it. If he asked for the ruhter or even better a router then it would be easy

P

route (root, rout)n. Abbr. rte. 1. A road, course, or way for travel from one place to another. A highway. 2. A customary line of travel. See Synonyms at way. 3. A fixed course or territory assigned to a salesperson or delivery person. 4. A means of reaching a goal.v. tr. rout-ed, rout-ing, routes. 1. To send or forward by a specific route. See Synonyms at send1. 2. To schedule the order of (a sequence of procedures).[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin rupta (via), broken (road), feminine past participle of rumpere, to break. See ROUT1.]

rout-er2 (rootr, rou-)n. One that routes, especially one who prepares shipments for distribution and delivery.

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Excerpted from American Heritage Talking Dictionary
Copyright © 1997 The Learning Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

As so often with English words - differenct pronounciations are acceptable.
My dictionary is a few years old when the routers you talked about weren't really around yet (at least not in every other household). But I think the second entry still qualifies, even though the aforementioned router routes data...

It's a rooter in my part of Australia.

But it's stupid to say one way is correct and one way is incorrect. English especially is spoken in so many countries and regions and pronounciations change depending on where you come from. To say that the American pronounciation is the only 'correct' one, as the author does, shows ignorance towards the way the English language is used.

My thoughts exactly Hazza. I say "ruhter" and Dr Erlinger does indeed point out in his article that this is the British English pronounication. If someone wants to use North American English or any other kind of English that is fine with me (as long as I can understand them).
Frankly the person asking the question appears rather arrogant and "rechtshaberisch" - or is that just my view?
Katrina

rechtshaberisch - does that mean anally retentive?

I've always pronounced it "rüter", and have never heard anyone pronounce it differently, so it's probably one of those "side of the pond" accent things. To me, a "rauter" would be someone who was running away from a battle (i.e., I pronounce route as "rüt" and rout as "raut").

Katrina,

You're right - he is being 'rechthaberisch'. I don't know if there's a good translation for the word - perhaps dogmatic is closest?

I used to work with a German guy who used to be like that. He'd actually try to 'correct' my pronounciation on words that are different to American English. Really pissed me off, especially as his English wasn't that crash-hot. At least he stopped doing it when I pulled him aside and told him - I found it pretty offensive. Asked him how he would feel if I 'corrected' his hochdeutsch to Bavarian (he was from Northern Germany and we were working in Karlsruhe).

One of those mysteries.
'Root 66' and 'which root home' were standards in New England before routers were invented.
When I moved to Texas EVERYTHING was 'Raut' with a strong diphthong.

Still, with the slice of USA that I claim from I think I have a good handle on many dialects and differences.

I would say that everyone says Raut-er in the US when it comes to both this piece of hardware and the woodworking tool.

Just to add to the confusion, in my neck of the woods in Australia it's referred to as a 'rauter' - both the networking and the woodworking kind.
If somebody asked me to go into the network room to check out the 'rooter', I'd start laughing and think that some illicit rendevous was going on in there!!!

But down under we get English from both sides, plus Strine, so it's not surprising it's not consistent everywhere...
Doesn't bother me at all, except when I was visiting the US, driving around in Chicago, and was asking for directions to Schaumburg, and people couldn't understand me

In Aotearoa we are used to hearing all sorts of pronounciations. We also have that "rooter" connotation that makes that pronounciation less popular. Most people where I am from pronounce it as "rauter" but both are heard. I dont think anyone considers one to be more correct than the other.

Voted on "rauter"...but that's just a Dutch habit...

I bet you say dartabase and pro-cess too... Infidel

isn't root sixty six also in america?
in what area did this guy get his Dr. - being an idiot does he not realise how mangeled and complicated the development of the english language is? does he think fall (as in autumn) is american or 16th century poor british english. i bet he also uses a handy

I just call it a Switch box...saves complications...

unless it's the power tool of course as somebody previously mentioned...

No it's not it's an american habit, which the dutch have picked up from watching too much american TV!

It's said rooter, even if it's not spelled that way. Duh!

Q) Why is an Australian man like a Panda?
A) 'Cos he eats, roots, shoots and leaves.

ahhh.. I've been missing this conversation. OK the bulk part of my job here in Munich is programming rooters, and as such get to hear so many different was to pronouce router.

The rauter comes from America English, and most foreign people tend to learn America English rather than British (or the Queens English) so as a result 90% of the people I speak to, refer to this as a rauter, and not a rooter.

Americans as poisioning the English Language !

pepper

you can poison a language that is as irregular and diverse as english.
it is wat it is and it grows as it grows

Don't americans pronounce it as "rauder" rather than "rauter"...?

/coat

US English, yes, that's a "d" in the end, not a "t" as you Brits would say it. No stop. That goes for router, ruhter, rauter, rooter, etc.

And Erlinger's doctoral degrees are in philosophy and something else, I can't remember. And he presents multiple pronunciations exactly that way: multiple and equally right, and his answer to the question is: pronounce the word as you think is right and don't try to tell anyone else how to pronounce their words. UNLESS the person is obviously pronouncing something incorrectly -- which as I read it means not present in any mainstream (or even slang) dictionary. That means if they're trying to say... ah, good example here! "Sitemap", but they pronounce it like a German screen reader program does, which says "sitteemahp" with the emphasis on the third syllable. That left us rolling on the floor when we tested a certain website at work...

We know that Bush says "nukyler" for nuclear, for example, but that's Texas. And how many people say "liberry" for library, "wensday" for Wednesday... I'll admit to those. Ever' day. If it's your kid or student you can correct them if you want, if not you don't. That simple, and that's all Erlinger said.

Although that brings to mind the Ebonics discussion...

Don't agree with this.

Here in Bavaria at least the schools teach British English. I was very careful to check this when my son started English at Gymnasium (Grammar School). I was told in no uncertain terms that the Bavaria Educational system required teaching in the British style and pronounciation.

It's true that many none-English speakers practice their English with Americans (or visit there) so adopt their pronunciation. This is especially true in the IT industry, where people also write software programs (rather than programmes)

YL6

Dunno about that. The missus is an English teacher and I have browsed with interest through the Lehrplan (Syllabus), didn't say anything about a definitive pronunciation, but you could be right. In practice, it has got mostly to do with where the English teacher spent his / her years abroad. In my missuses case, she spent a year in Ireland and speaks English with an Irish accent, I have met english teachers who did their time in America and had most definitely the American pronunciation.

On a side note, my boss (german) corrected my pronunciation about an hour ago, and specifically pointed to the fact that I was pronouncing it incorrectly. It must the only country in the world where you would find people with the arrogance to correct a native speaker.

The father in the au-pair family I first lived with did this to me when I lived with them my first year. He obviously was getting such a kick out of correcting my German, he got carried away and tried to correct me on how "Hi-Fi" is pronounced, telling me it was "a Hi-Fee system". I tried to tell him, no, it rhymes in English, two long i sounds. He refused to believe me, insisting that he was pronouncing the "correct British way"! I was deeply gratified when a few days later, my friend from Oxford gave him a look like he was nuts and told him it was Hi-Fi.

you say tomahto, I say tomayto

you say neether i say niyther

In reality it doesn’t matter how the word is pronounced just as long as the other person understands, which is what the answer to the original paper states.

My problem when I first heard the word (as a Brit working in IT) was that I simply didn’t understand what was intended. A rowter? Someone who wins a battle single-handed? So I asked and tried not to laugh at the answer and I certainly didn’t say „oh you mean a rooter“ Now I know what is meant and that is the point.

What seems to be emerging in this thread, and what annoys me, is the arrogance of the original question. A non-native speaker uses the word „fälschlicherweise“. Bet he still calls his mobile a hendy. Or should I have said cellphone

the vote and percentages above actually reflect the number of Brits on Toytown verses the number of North Americans and Australians.

For the hardware, we do say Rauter in the US generally..with a few regional exceptions [like the residents of Fargo would say Ruhter]...

It loks like we are 40% non Brit on this site. Not bad.