Congrats!
and as per your mystification:
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Phil Natta</i>
But mystifying to me is where and when the British pronunciation of "<u>Luff</u>tenant" came into play. [?]
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
I have found the following:
http://en2.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lieutenant
<font color="blue"><font size="6"><font face="Arial Black">LIEUTENANT</font id="Arial Black"></font id="size6"></font id="blue"><font color="red"><i><font size="1"><font face="Arial">From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. </font id="Arial"></font id="size1"></i></font id="red">
A Lieutenant is a military or paramilitary officer. The word lieutenant derives from French; the lieu meaning "place" as in a position or territory; and tenant meaning "holding" as in "holding a position". In French history, "lieutenant du roi" was a title borne by the officer sent with military powers to represent the king in certain provinces. It is in the sense of a deputy that it has entered into the names of more senior officers, Lieutenant General, Lieutenant Colonel, and Lieutenant Commander.
<i>Pronunciation </i>
The word is pronounced loo-tenant in American English and usually lef-tenant in British English although this is only correct with respect to the British Army. The Royal Navy pronounce the word as l'tenant which is a closer anglicised approximation of the original French. In Canada, lef-tenant is standard for all branches of the Armed Forces and for other usages such as lieutenant governor. The British pronunciation is prevalent during 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'. Lev-tenant eventually becoming lef-tenant. It has also been speculated that it may have come from a fanciful etymology which associated it with the verb 'to leave', as the lieutenant only took up his duties once his superior officer had 'left'.