[PW] Re: ? pronunciation of "lieutenant"

[Reed C Bowman]

John Franklin wrote:

>The following question is being sent to the list on behalf of Peter  
>E. Blau, because for whatever reason his attempts to send it have  
>failed.
>
>Why is it that "lieutenant" is pronounced "leftenant" on one side of  
>the Atlantic, and "lootenant" on the other?  I find the explanation  
>at Wikipedia less than authoritative.
>
>Many thanks,
>--
>Peter E. Blau
>7103 Endicott Court
>Bethesda, MD 20817-4401
>(301-229-5669)
>_______________________________________________
>Project Wombat
>list at project-wombat.org
>http://www.project-wombat.org/
>
>
>  
>
I cannot pretend to be authoritative on the subject, but the f (and 
formerly v) sound in it seems to be the real English pronunciation as it 
evolved, mostly or entirely separate from the spelling. OED says a few 
not-terribly-clear things on this subject. Maybe OED2 is better. Does 
mention someone's saying "leftenant" was unheardof in the US outside the 
retired naval lists.

I would assume that the western-hemisphere pronunciation is either from 
Webster's reforming hand or from the typically prosaic, literal-minded 
(literally!) American approach to pronunciation. I recall this being 
described by Alistair Cooke, I think it was, by saying, How can you 
teach this new language to an immigrant from Germany or Italy or Poland 
or wherever, and tell him that the word "Waistcoat" is pronounced 
"Weskit"? While you can't get an American to articulate all those French 
vowels correctly, they're at least going to avoid throwing in spare, 
invisible consonants without good reason.

RCB