Originally posted by Xfr8dog:
How did Lieu become Lef? The English did have a way of mangling foreign words to suit their lack of lingual dexterity.
Mumbai - Bombay
Singapura - Singapore
Yangon - Rangoon
Myanmar - Burma
Bombay have been pronounced as Bombay till about 1996 when the Indian government decided that city names should follow its founding name. Thus Bombay revert to Mumbai, Madras to Chennai.
Mumbai is derived from Mumbadevi (an hindu goddess). Bombay is derived from Bom Bahia (portuguese). It has nothing to do with fitting to English.
Same goes for Myanmar and Burma.
As for Lieutanent.
It seems the only plausible explanation was that during 14th century, when english script was still evolving. Roman Letter U and V were not yet standardised (Roman U was spelt as V). Therefore there was a mixture of ppl who pronounced it then LieVtenant, and LieUtenant.
Hope this helps.