How do you pronounce it?

root

edit: Nor. CA

Rawt, Root is slang

Root. (California)

Somehow, getting one’s kicks on “rawt” 66 doesn’t sound as exciting.

Root. NE US – (excepting Maine.)

I say “root;” I’ve never even heard “rawt” (I am thinking of this like “wrought”?), but I am aware of those who say “rout” (as rhyming with “out”).

I was trying for a phonetic spelling. “Rawt” rhyming with “out”.

“root” here in Massachusetts.

Like girlofscience, I have occasionaly heard “rout”.

route rhymes with doubt – case closed

After reading the above, I would say it depends on what part of the country you are in.

Rawt. WV

According to Oxford, it’s homophone is “root”.

Also, it’s from the French, “rute”.

So “rout” or “rawt” are slang.

Sorry – case re-opened.

I live just off of a root 7. However, there’s also a rawt 9 nearby, so I guess it depends on the number!!

@Schenectandy; I live near you (if your user name means anything) and we have 9 A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and H, so we just say “Take 9H.)

I just say Eye 5! (Here in So Cal we ususlly just say “the” and the number though. The 5, the 99, the 605, the 55….)

This is true, but it’s a whole different kettle of fish.

Here we’ll say, “Take 128 north to 93 south, get off at storrow, go past the half shell, get off at Kendle Square and bang a left into Fenway.”

Root (also from Northern California)

Root (Cali.)

The paper boy has a rawt.
We drive on a root.
(Calif.)

Get your kicks….. on root..66…. ( I just realized this is a prety young crowd, they may not get it. )

@gailcalled, niskayunandy is more accurate actually, but less catchy. Btw, enjoying this slush puppie of a new year we’re having?!

But is that “root” to rhyme with “foot” and “soot” (as in the Midwest) or with “hoot” and “boot” and “loot”?

I grew up in the Northeast and both heard and spoke “route” and “root” about the same (rhyme with “hoot”). In the Midwest I heard “root” to rhyme with “foot” for the first time. Now in Northern California I hear “route” as “rowt” (rhymes with “out”), but I don’t say it. And Cisco makes “rowters,” not “rooooters.” (But “rout,” another word altogether, always rhymes with “out.”)

Jeruba just made my head spin.

Out here in CA, I say root..

When back in IA, I say rawt..

Basically depends on the crew I’m hanging with at the time :-)

Root – Maryland

Yes, but is that route a highway or a freeway?

@cprevite: It’s a highway that crosses Maryland…

In Tennessee where I also say yall, it’s pronounced ‘root’.

@Cprevite: I can do that drive with my eyes shut…Storrow Drive past the shell and get off at Kendall Square. (Is 128 still 128?)

@Schenectandy; I would love slush puppies; here in the hill country of Columbia County, I have sheet ice and a plowing and sanding bill that would feel the Sudan for a month.

I say rowt. However, when hearing other people say it, I hear root. I haven’t heard anyone pronounce it rawt, althouhg that may just be an accent of rowt.

@gailcalled: It is still 128 from the clover leaf in Woburn all the way to Gloucester where it ends. Of course it overlaps interstate 95 for a ways.

I would say truck “root” 5, but if it was Rural “Rawt” 5 then that is different. I grew up in North Dakota and now live in Ca.

I pronounce it root.

I prefer the pronunciation that rhymes with “boot”, however I have heard and used both here in Michigan.

I lived in Maryland, close to DC for most of my life. We said both ‘rout’ and ‘root’ (rhyming with boot) about equally. I have no idea why this is, and never even thought about it until now!

I think “rawt” = “rot” and don’t see it as an alternative. All I was really saying is that there are two pronunciations of “root,” so “rhymes with root” is ambiguous.

Root. HKG.

I pronounce it sometimes as ”-oot” and sometimes as ”-out”; New Jersey born and bred.

‘root’.

I’m English so I say it the proper way.
After all, we all speak the ENGLISH language don’t we :)

I’m from the UK, so it’s always said like “root” here.