Why is coyote spelled coyote

One of my colleagues at the Canadian Oxford Dictionary admitted to me that he had always thought that "KY-oat" was the "weird pronunciation," and probably American. The animal's name is ultimately derived from Nahuatl, the language spoken by the Aztecs, for whom the crafty canine was a "coyotl. The fact that it no longer exists can be blamed on the Spanish speakers of Mexico, who were totally unable to pronounce the string "tl" at the end of a word and thus transformed it into the three-syllable "coyote," which is what the English speakers in the Southwestern United States borrowed from them in the early s.

It is unclear how the two-syllable variant arose from this, but it is analogous to what happened to the word "chocolate" as it passed into English from the Nahuatl "chocolatl" via Spanish "chocolate. Dear God, this means that both pronunciations are American! Now what do we do if we want to be "truly Canadian"? Well, of course they're both American. Where else would we get a Mexican Spanish word for a native animal from? It's hardly likely to have come into Canadian English via Britain, or to have leapfrogged right over the United States to land in Canada untarnished.

We could of course also ask the philosophical question as to why it would be better if it had come from Britain, but the point is moot.

From the Editors at Merriam-Webster. Trending: 'Coyote': "One Who Smuggles Style: MLA. English Language Learners Definition of coyote. Kids Definition of coyote. Get Word of the Day daily email! Test Your Vocabulary. Test your vocabulary with our question quiz! Love words? Need even more definitions? Homophones, Homographs, and Homonyms The same, but different. Merriam-Webster's Words of the Week - Nov. Ask the Editors 'Everyday' vs.

Coyotes look like gray or reddish-gray, medium-sized dogs. They have a pointed nose and bushy tail. They have a keen sense of smell and their hearing is very sharp. Coyotes make many different sounds to express themselves. Asmaa Wellemsen Explainer. How many syllables does coyote have? Yeray Roytbarg Explainer. How do you pronounce opossum? Opossum , pronounced uh-poss-uhm, is still favored for formal writing.

Kit El Mejdoubi Pundit. Where do coyotes come from? Some even live in tropical climates. As humans take over more and more countryside, coyotes are adapting to living in cities to find food. Brooke Stuckert Pundit. How do you pronounce GIF?

Kym Chulia Pundit. What is the plural of Fox? What's the plural form of fox? Here's the word you're looking for. The plural form of fox is foxes.