Hi again and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English pronunciation podcast.

My name is Mandy, and this is our 152nd episode.

This podcast uses some upper-level English, so reading along with the transcripts may help

your comprehension of the topic.

You can find the transcripts by going to www.prenuncian.com slash podcast. I've been receiving a lot of requests lately for more podcasts highlighting the differences

between British English and American English. So today I thought I'd talk about the word

schedule, which is pronounced as schedule in British English.

I'll also discuss the more general S-C-H pronunciation pattern.

The word schedule has an interesting history.

According to the online etymology dictionary, this word points all the way back to Greek

about 2,500 years ago, give or take a few hundred years.

Then the word traveled through a couple of versions of Latin, then into Old French,

and finally in the late 14th century, into English.

That tour through Old French is probably what created the schedule pronunciation that the British still use.

I've done podcasts before about words in English that have retained their French influence

in their English pronunciation.

This includes words like cafe and ballet.

However, it's unusual that the word schedule, using the British pronunciation, held on to the French influence.

This is because words that are older than the 17th century usually fit into modern spelling and pronunciation patterns.

The modern pattern is that words that are spelled S-C-H are pronounced

S-K, especially if they came from Greek. This includes words like school, scholar, scheme,

and schematic. The online etymology dictionary credits Noah Webster of dictionary fame for updating,

...