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Canadian
"leftenant" has to be the most bizarre pronunciation in the English language. The fact that these peculiarities are so rare shows how few differences exist.
Do Canadians pronounce "route"- like rowt or like root? And is "leisure" pronounced lezure or leezure?
<<"leftenant" has to be the most bizarre pronunciation in the English language. The fact that these peculiarities are so rare shows how few differences exist.>>
I've read that apparently it came as a spelling pronunciation in the day when orthographically "v" was still used where "u" is today. Thus, if you've never heard it pronounced and see it spelled "lievtenant" a pronunciation with /f/ is quite plausible, being the same sound as /v/ but simply not voiced. I'm still not sure how America escaped the spelling pronunciation, but that's what I've read as the explanation for the British pronunciation of "lieutenant." About "route," I use both pronunciations of the word depending on context. For instance, I've never heard anyone say "rowt 66"...it's always "root 66" for "route 66." So, if I see an official route as in a state route I definitely pronounce it "root." When I was younger I had a paper route and I almost always pronounced it "rowt" in that context. In other, general usages of the word, I use "root" and "rowt" pretty interchangeably.
Same, Kirk. I use both pronunciations of "route". A road that is named "Route --" is always "Root --". However, a route as a planned path is always "rowt".
I also have such alternation between /raUt/ -> [r\aU?] and /rut/ -> [r\u?] for "route", and the distribution of the usage of such at least in my own speech is like Tiffany's, as I refer to a road with "route" in its name using the latter pronunciation, but I refer to a general path of some sort called a "route" using the former pronunciation.
The reason Canadians say "leftenant" and Americans say "lieutenant" has much more to do with history than dialect.
Canada remained part of the British Empire both as a colony and as a self-governing Dominion; the Canadian military thus continued to draw on the British model for its customs and traditions (as did the Australians, New Zealanders, Indians etc, etc). From independence, the US military tended to follow the French "continental" model and this is how "loo-tenant" came to be adopted.
I think I read something about the US "lieutentant" pronunciation in H.L. Mencken's "The American Language" from 1921. I'll find it right now from bartleby.com...
"Finally, there is lieutenant. The Englishman pronounces the first syllable left; the American invariably makes it loot. White says that the prevailing American pronunciation is relatively recent. βI never heard it,β he reports, βin my boyhood.β He was born in New York in 1821." (http://www.bartleby.com/185/30.html)
"Same, Kirk. I use both pronunciations of "route". A road that is named "Route --" is always "Root --". However, a route as a planned path is always "rowt"."
"Rowt" - I think that's how they say it for computing don't they...
"...traditional British and current American "-ize/zation"
OED still prefers "ize" etc., and so it is still common in UK-published books, but is rarely seen in the UK press (Cambridge dictionaries show "-ise" versions as "UK usually"). Canada aside, all other Commonwealth countries appear to use "-ise" only.
On the spelling side, one of my favourite examples of the nature of Canadian English usage is the term for turning old black and white movies into colour versions by computer.
Americans use "to colorize." In the UK, I note it's "to colourise." Good old compromising Canada uses "to colourize"!
"Colourize" is fine in UK ... in Commonwealth English as mentioned above be simply less common.
Another place where the US-Canadian distinction is sharp is what they call a zed. Also I doubt that an American would have a clue as to what a toque or poutine is.
<Americans use "to colorize."
In the UK, I note it's "to colourise." Good old compromising Canada uses "to colourize"! > Very strange indeed. I'm from New Zealand is use none of these examples. In New Zealand: 'to colorise'
''Another place where the US-Canadian distinction is sharp is what they call a zed.''
Yeah I once thought they were just bad pronouncers of the letter 'c' until I learnt they say the letter 'z' different. |