What is the most common pronunciation of "route" in Australia?
From https://dictionary.cambridge.org/pronunciation/english/route
UK/ruːt/ US/ruːt//raʊt/
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1answered here (but the answer is downvoted, so YMMV) https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/14872/where-do-people-pronounce-route-as-ro%cd%9eot-and-as-rout/21017#21017 "From Australia: [route is] like hoot, rowt is an abomination" – James K Jul 17 '23 at 11:41
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1On the other hand, another answerer from Austrialia says he uses "rowt" to avoid the homonym "root = have sex" So the answer seems to be "both". – James K Jul 17 '23 at 11:50
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Australian Oxford Dictionary (2 ed.) gives both. Very hard to find which is more common, although you could try and find a recording of your favourite Australian personality and copy them. – Stuart F Jul 17 '23 at 13:33
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It is not just Australians and the British. It's also those Americans who do not use rout for route. – Lambie Jul 17 '23 at 16:24
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There's even a famous American song which goes "Get your kicks on route sixty-six.” pronounced root as in "root vegetables" – Mari-Lou A Jul 17 '23 at 20:39
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Perhaps the more familiar version with Chuck Berry will ring a bell? – Mari-Lou A Jul 17 '23 at 20:44
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Australians pronounce 'route' the same as British English speakers (ru:t), as evidenced in this video, in which you can hear native Australian English speakers discussing trade routes. However, videos here and here, which are discussing 'routers' supplied by Australian broadband providers, demonstrate that Australians imitate the US pronunciation of the word (rau̇-tər) when it comes to these devices.
It has been suggested in comments that this may be due to the 'offensive' use of the similar-sounding word 'root' in Australian English. This was a surprise to me. I'm a native British English speaker that spent some time in Australia during the late 1990s and I never noticed a different pronunciation of 'route'. Obviously, this was before the days of broadband, so my guess would be that the word 'router' was deliberately introduced with the US pronunciation to avoid the obvious innuendo. In searching for videos as evidence, I noticed that quite a few Australian broadband providers have named their routers "smart modems", perhaps for the same reason. Of course, there is no alternative pronunciation of 'root' when it is used in other contexts (eg plant roots), so it isn't as if Australians avoid pronouncing either word ruːt altogether.
Astralbee
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@Lambie Yes, the OP quoted the dictionary on that in their question, which is why I only mentioned it in passing. – Astralbee Jul 18 '23 at 07:51