Colonel vs. Kernel?

The best I can explain it is that the word was derived from Middle French, and was an alteration of their word "coronel", (with an "r") which in turn was taken from Old Italian "colonnello", a column of soldiers, colonel, diminutive of colonna column, from Latin columna.

Although the spelling has changed, the pronounciation continues to use the R....to understand that would probably take a lot more research than I'm prepared to do.

Mainly to continue the tradition of making English as incomprehensible as possible, thereby keeping the spelling bee industry in business. (Believe me, there's millions in it.) Colonel comes from Old Italian colonello, commander of a column of troops, which in turn derives from colonna, column. It wasn't always spelled the Italian way, though. Four hundred years ago English followed the Spanish practice and spelled the word "coronel," sensibly pronounced the way it looked. Eventually this was corrupted to ker-nel, still not bad considering we're talking about the British, who pronounce "Featheringstonehaugh" "Fanshaw."

But it couldn't last. Some nameless busybody decided coronel ought to be spelled "colonel" to better reflect its Italian origin, doubtless out of the same misplaced love of precision that gave us 16-1/2 feet to the rod and 27 and 11/32 grains to the dram. It's just the Anglo-Saxon way, I guess. How these people conquered an empire I'll never know.

The odd pronunciation of the word comes from the British adaptation of the rank; when it was incorporated into their military in the mid-1800s, the spelling was taken from the French military rank Colonel while the pronunciation was a Spanish loan word, Coronel. Gradually, slurring of the word lead to Coronel to become [ˈkɜːrnl], which is still used today despite the spelling.

Ask a brit or a true southerner. You may find according to accent that it is actually pronouced differently.

Try using it in context when asking:

Please, tell me about the guy who founded Kentucky Friend Chicken. v. What do you call that core program to every operatng system?