# British pronunciation of lieutenant?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-pronunciation-of-lieutenant/85344
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [October 4, 2001, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-pronunciation-of-lieutenant/85344 "2001-10-04T07:27:20Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@achterover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/achterover)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2001, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-pronunciation-of-lieutenant/85344/1 "2001-10-04T07:27:20Z")
I know this was a topic, but I can’t find the answer…where on earth do they get lef-tenant? It’s two french words - ‘place’ and ‘holder’…
tia,
johan
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### Author:  [@Major\_Feelgud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Major_Feelgud)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2001, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-pronunciation-of-lieutenant/85344/2 "2001-10-04T07:55:19Z")
While you’re at it, see if you can find out why buoy is boy, draught is draft, and Tuesday is Chooseday.
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### Author:  [@grimpixie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grimpixie)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2001, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-pronunciation-of-lieutenant/85344/3 "2001-10-04T10:32:13Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by achterover \*
> **I know this was a topic, but I can’t find the answer…where on earth do they get lef-tenant? It’s two french words - ‘place’ and ‘holder’…**
From [this site](http://www.lt.gov.on.ca/faq/):
> [@](#):
>
> \*\*What is the correct pronunciation of Lieutenant? \*\*
>
> In Canada, the proper pronunciation is Lef’tenent. The word was originally two Latin terms, “locum” meaning in place of, and “teneris” meaning holding, together the phrase applied to anyone “holding in place of” someone else. Over time the word “locum” evolved into the French word “lieu”, which is pronounced in French as it is spelled. It is possible that when the English heard the French pronounce the compound word lieutenant, they perceived a slurring which they heard as a “v” or “f” sound between the first and second syllables. Most English speaking nations, with the exception of the United States, still pronounce the word as though there is an “f” in it.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2001, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-pronunciation-of-lieutenant/85344/4 "2001-10-04T10:41:43Z")
Re: Tuesday - “Chooseday”
Actually, this is funny, cuz that’s how I naturally pronounced it when I was little…as a Chicagoan with no exposure to Brits. Basically, there’s a sort of rule to this. If a “t” is followed by a “oo” sound in a multisyllabic word, it get palatalized. What you really have is something more like “Tyoosday”, not exactly “Chooseday.” Also, the “Tube” becomes “the tyube” or the “choob.” This rule also applies with "d"s. “Fondue” becomes “Fond-you,” “Duty” become “Dyou-tee” or “jewty,” etc.
Draught = draft. Doesn’t seem so weird to me. The “augh” in “laugh” is also “aff.”
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### Author:  [@reprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/reprise)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2001, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-pronunciation-of-lieutenant/85344/5 "2001-10-04T11:17:35Z")
So someone enlighten me, how do people in the US pronounce “buoy”?
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### Author:  [@Punoqllads](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Punoqllads)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2001, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-pronunciation-of-lieutenant/85344/6 "2001-10-04T11:31:32Z")
boo wee
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### Author:  [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2001, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-pronunciation-of-lieutenant/85344/7 "2001-10-04T11:45:54Z")
How about [Magdalen College Oxford](http://www.magd.ox.ac.uk/index_js.html) which sounds like moudelin.
Since this is the SDMB how about our illustrious leader, Cecil. You 'merikans say ceee-cil whereas over this side of the pond it’s cessil.
🙂
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2001, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-pronunciation-of-lieutenant/85344/8 "2001-10-04T11:50:13Z")
Actually, we say it both ways. The baseball player Cecil Fielder is usually pronounced “Seh-sull.” I do, however, normally say “See-sull.”
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### Author:  [@LateComer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LateComer)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2001, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-pronunciation-of-lieutenant/85344/9 "2001-10-04T12:29:47Z")
Other oddly pronounced military ranks:
colonel. (kernel? what the hell? from latin for column.)
boatswain (bosan)
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### Author:  [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2001, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-pronunciation-of-lieutenant/85344/10 "2001-10-04T12:30:33Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by grimpixie \*
> \*\*…the French word “lieu”, which is pronounced in French as it is spelled.
\*\*
[/QUOTE]
Is that the ONLY French word pronounced as it is spelled? :d&r:
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### Author:  [@DVous\_Means](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DVous_Means)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2001, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-pronunciation-of-lieutenant/85344/11 "2001-10-04T13:11:28Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by LateComer \*
> \*\*Other oddly pronounced military ranks:
>
> colonel. (kernel? what the hell? from latin for column.)
> boatswain (bosan) \*\*
Bosun is an abreviation of boatswain.
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### Author:  [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2001, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-pronunciation-of-lieutenant/85344/12 "2001-10-04T13:25:54Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by LateComer \*
> \*\*Other oddly pronounced military ranks:
>
> colonel. (kernel? what the hell? from latin for column.)
> \*\*
Influence from the Spanish “coronel” (same rank). The Spanish transposed consonant also makes the word correlate to an “officer of the crown(corona)”.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2001, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-pronunciation-of-lieutenant/85344/13 "2001-10-04T13:26:38Z")
I’m sure that “colonel” has been treated somewhere in the bowels of the Straight Dope empire, but it’s apparently a case of keeping the spelling of one variant (“colonel”) and the pronunciation of another (“coronel”).
You want weird? How about the way “Churmondeley” is pronounced “Chumley”? It’s enough to make you go to Worcester.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2001, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-pronunciation-of-lieutenant/85344/14 "2001-10-04T13:46:46Z")
I’m American and I pronounce “bouy” somewhere between “boy” and “boo wee”. Sort of “booy”, one syllable but with more of a long-O sound.
I’ve thought about “colonel”, and this is my theory: “Co-lo-nel” could sound like “co-ro-nel” with a rolled R. From there it’s an easy slur to “ker-n’l”.
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### Author:  [@Rodd\_Hill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodd_Hill)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2001, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-pronunciation-of-lieutenant/85344/15 "2001-10-04T13:55:14Z")
Featherstonehaugh: pronounced “Fanshaw”
Bucclueuch: pronounced “Beauly”
Menzies: pronounced “Mingus” (at least by older folks)
Culross: pronounced “Kewross”
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### Author:  [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2001, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-pronunciation-of-lieutenant/85344/16 "2001-10-04T14:02:02Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by CalMeacham \*
> \*\*It’s enough to make you go to Worcester. \*\*
Worcester is particularly funny because both it and Wooster are pronounced the same, but neither of them are spelled that way.
I think buoy is pronounced differently throught the States; I’ve heard boo-wee, boo-ee, and boy, but I pronounce it boy-ee (like a rap star, but less so).
Does anybody out there know how to spell the name of the college pronounce “Keys”? It’s pretty weird, isn’t it?
–Cliffy
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### Author:  [@The\_Great\_Gazoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Gazoo)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2001, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-pronunciation-of-lieutenant/85344/17 "2001-10-04T14:16:04Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Rodd Hill \*
> \*\*Featherstonehaugh: pronounced “Fanshaw”
> Bucclueuch: pronounced “Beauly”
> Menzies: pronounced “Mingus” (at least by older folks)
> Culross: pronounced “Kewross” \*\*
Don’t forget Fotheringay pronounced as “Fungy” with a hard g.
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### Author:  [@Rodd\_Hill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodd_Hill)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2001, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-pronunciation-of-lieutenant/85344/18 "2001-10-04T14:18:15Z")
“It’s spelled ‘Luxury-Yacht,’ but it’s pronounced ‘Throatwarbler-Mangrove!’”
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### Author:  [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2001, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-pronunciation-of-lieutenant/85344/19 "2001-10-04T14:30:04Z")
the oxford college that sounds like keys is, i think Caius.
that help any?
and regional accents don’t help.
the northern irish mangling of the word “bow” (as in bow wow) makes it sound like “boy” (the irish pronunciation of buoy).
which is confusing in a boat race if the cox or officials are from ulster.
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### Author:  [@Mersavets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mersavets)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2001, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-pronunciation-of-lieutenant/85344/20 "2001-10-04T14:32:59Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Rodd Hill \*
> **Menzies: pronounced “Mingus” (at least by older folks)**
That explains something for me. The longest serving Australian Prime Minister was Robert Menzies. His nickname was Ming but I always assumed it was because of his resemblance to Ming the Merciless from the Flash Gordon series which would have been popular during part of his time in office.
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