Originally Posted By: Faldage
 Originally Posted By: The Pook

Whilst on different pronunciations, it's interesting that North Americans say Lootenn't for Lieutenant whilst English people say Leftenant. I would say Lyewtenant or L'tenant.


Don't the English pronounce it one way for Navy lieutenants and the other for Army lieutenants?


From wikipedia:
"British naval tradition preserved an intermediate pronunciation: /lə'tɛnənt/. This is not recognized as current by the OED, however, and by 1954 the Royal Canadian Navy, at least, regarded it as "obsolescent" even while regarding "the army's 'LEF-tenant'" to be "a corruption of the worst sort"."

There is no certainty as to where the labial 'f' or 'v' ending variants on the first syllable came from. OED rejects the idea that it was in Middle English from a French variant on lieu, loef. It seems more likely that it was a spelling pronunciation because 'u' and 'v' used to be interchangeable, but there is no consensus on that either.