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Pronunciation of Riza and Roy’s Ranks

In an inspired attempt to avoid doing important tasks, I searched on why the British and Americans pronounce “lieutenant” differently. There were several different replies (and insulting arguments), but this one seemed reasonable to me. And, serendipitously, the thread included a comment regarding “colonel.” 

There is fair evidence (in terms of how the word was spelled in middle english) that both "lef" and "lieu" pronunciations have coexisted for some time.  The French word "lieu" (place) on which the word is based, is occasionally seen spelt in old French as "luef".

Codified spellings and pronunciations of words is a distinctly modern invention - for most of the time before, things were a lot more vague.

foxglove87

So, it's a case of historical synonyms, with each culture arbitrarily choosing their preferred variation?

nwob

I think that's at least a plausible explanation, though presumably the spelling was standardised to the more French-looking version without the pronunciation catching up.

jianadaren1

2 points ·

4 years ago

The history of the word "colonel" has a similar story: one language's pronunciation became standard while a different language's spelling was accepted.

It took the pronunciation from a now-obsolete Middle French word "coronel" but during 16th-century translations of Italian military manuals, the spelling conformed to the Italian "colonella". Both pronunciations coexisted for a time, but the modern one eventually won-out.

The rank lieutenant-colonel is storied indeed.