Colonel, uttal?

The English pronunciation was prevalent during the 14th and 15th centuries with the word being variously spelled as lieftenant, lyeftenant or luftenant. It may have originated from a mistaken reading of the 'u' as a 'v' (u and v originally were written as the same letter), with v eventually assimilating in voice to /f/. Something similar happened in Greek (with υ (upsilon), originally pronounced /u/, in some cases being pronounced /v/), and British education on the Greek classics may have also encouraged the pronunciation. Some sources state that the original French word lieu (i.e. "place", since "lieu tenant" literally means "place holder" in old French) had an alternative form spelt and pronounced lieuf, and that the most common modern form retains the former spelling 'Lieutenant' and the latter pronunciation, 'Leftenant'.