Keiva, it ain't that Simple. think about how non-standardized spelling was back when. I didn't think anyone really wanted this much detail, but. The two forms were used indifferently by Barret, Holland, Decker, and others; coronel was the prevailing form till 1630, but disappeared in writing c1650. Of 89 quots. examined before this date, 56 have coronel, 33 colonel, thus distributed: up to 1590 coronel 21, colonel 1; 1591–1630 cor- 31, col- 22; 1631–50 cor- 4, col- 10; 1651– cor- 0. In 17thc. colonell was trisyllabic, and was often accented (in verse) on the last syllable. But by 1669 it began to be reduced in pronunciation to two syllables, col'nel (according to Jones Pract. Phonography, 1701, ("kVln@l)), as recorded by Dr. Johnson 1755–73, and repeated without remark by Todd 1818; in Farquhar's Sir Harry Wildair (1701) it appears familiarly abbreviated to coll. But app. the earlier coronel had never died out of popular use; Dr. A. J. Ellis Eng. Pronunc. 1074/2 cites Dyche 1710 for ("kVr@UnEl), Buchanan 1766 for ("kO;nIl), Sheridan 1780 for ("k3;nEl) the pronunciation now established, though apparently not yet universal in 1816. and recall (from above) that the spelling colonel seems to have finally won out becuase of the etymological relationship to the leader of a column of infantry.

[Nothing is Simple]