Why does the Canadian pronunciation of Lieutenant, 'Lef-tenant', differ from the American one which is pronounced as it sounds?

CapainNemo

It's not just Canadian - Its a British thing, a lot of the countries who were part of the British Empire pronounce it like that. The word "Lieu" comes from the French word for "Place" (Lieu tenant meant someone who would hold the place of the leader in his absense), The "wrong" pronounciation comes from the rare Old French variant spelling luef for Modern French lieu. http://www.reference.com/search?q=Leftenant Jun 01 09, 10:28 AM

zbeckabee

Pronunciation of lieutenant is generally split between the forms left-tenant (/lɛfˈtɛnənt/) and lieu-tenant (/lju¢°ˈtɛnənt/), with the former generally associated with the United Kingdom, Ireland and Commonwealth countries, and the latter generally associated with the United States. Early pronunciation -- The earlier history of the pronunciation is unclear; Middle English spellings included both forms like lutenand and lyeutenaunt, suggesting a /lju¢°-/ pronunciation, and forms like leeftenant and luftenand, suggesting /lɛf-/. The hypothesis that the labial-terminated initial syllable arose as a spelling pronunciation conflating vocalic and consonantal v (the letters u and v were not distinguished before the eighteenth century) is rejected by the Oxford English Dictionary as "not [in] accord with the facts". The rare Old French variant spelling luef for Modern French lieu "place", on the other hand, supports the suggestion that the final /w/ of the Old French word was in certain environments apprehended as a /f/ /v/. The development of the ¥á¥ô and ¥å¥ô diphthongs in the Greek language, [av] and [ɛv], respectively, in Modern Greek, may lend plausibility to this explanation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leftenant#Pronunciation Jun 01 09, 10:29 AM

george48

Thanks! Jun 01 09, 10:40 AM