Question for our British friends:

[Aristus]

Why do the British pronounce the word 'lieutenant' as ' 'LEFT-tenant' instead of 'LOO-tenant'? And no bathroom jokes, please. Is it because it is a French word? I mean, given your thousand year old rivalry with the French, I'd assume you wouldn't want to give it a French pronounciation.

So, what's the story?

[Nihil]

1. Many years ago, I was told ...

... that the originally spelling was "Lievtenant" (hence the sound)
but, while trying to confirm this, found the following for you:

<snip>

Lieutenant
- A subaltern officer ranking immediately below a Captain.
OED: 1578. Originally in the 14th-15th centuries, an officer acting
for a superior, or in his place. Through Elizabethan times, the
company was the largest permanently organised tactical body of
troops, and the captain's deputy was called a captain-lieutenant.
When companies grew into permanently regimented battalions, the
titles was abbreviated to simply lieutenant.

<snip>

Pronunciation: Throughout the Commonwealth the pronunciation is lef-tenant.
Possible explanations include
(a) an English interpretation of the French labial glide of lieu- as a prefix,
(b) a mispronunciation of the typographical liev-,
(c) a slur of the phrase "in lieu of".

British pronunciation may also have been influenced by the notion
that a lieutenant could not exercise power until his superior
had "left" - a confusion of the etymology with the verb "leave".

The later pronunciation loo-tenant was known in England in the late
18th century, but was never predominant, and disappeared altogether
in the 19th century. In the US, loo-tenant gained slow and intermittent
acceptance, possibly influenced by Webster's language reforms.
(Loo-tenant is a closer approximation of the original French.)
An 1893 newspaper article mentions that it was confined almost
exclusively to the retired list of the US Navy. Thirty years later
it was fast becoming the prevalent form in America.

<snip>

(See http://www.regiments.org/milhist/regtintro/ranks.htm)

Hey, you learn something every day in this place :-)

Nihil

[Aristus]

2. Fascinating.

Thanks! :thumbsup: :-)

[Zuni]

3. And they salute with their palm exposed too

And do not even get me started on their systems of regiments and their names. It is very confusing. Reading military history you come upon things like 4/12 Queen's Own Royal Hussars Guards*, which would be different than the 7/8 Royal Hussars, and far from the 11/23 Northwickhampshire Greys. (all these are made up, except for perhaps the Royal Hussars, which may exist or have existed before) Plus, the diffrence between Regular, Territorial and National Army forces in wartime is confusing.

That would be cavalry, or perhaps armored battalion. 4th Battalion of the 12th Regiment of the Queens Own Royal Hussars Guards.

[Aristus]

4. God, British Army radio operators must truly hate their work!

"This is the first of the fourth Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry calling the Queen's Own African Rifles and Light Horse Cavalry. I say again, this is the first of the fourth Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry calling the Queen's Own African Rifles and Light Cavalry, over." :-)

[Zuni]

5. I wonder if the commanding officers

can even keep track of all the units. "What do you mean we don't have the 6th/4 Royal Scots Greys? Oh, we have the 4/6 Scots Guards, my bad. Now get on the radio and call the 7/10 Northumberland Fusiliers for support. What? It is the 3/8 Ulster Rifles? I have no idea who is in my division!"

[VOX]

6. As is that's not enough, it's pronounced L'TENANT in the Royal Navy

LEFTENANT in the British Army, L'TENANT in the Royal Navy.

:shrug: