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Why is 'phonetic' spelt with a 'ph'?
Paul Morgan, Bristol UK
- For the same reason as the word "symmetric" is not actually symmetrical and "abbreviation" is not written "abbr."
Rowan Christou, Lausanne Switzerland
- Because when spelling was being standardised it was felt that words of Greek origin should have a "ph" where there was the Greek letter "phi" to retain some of the "greekness" of word elements like "photo-" (light), "philo-"(love) and"sopho-" (wisdom).
Marc Loewenthal, london UK
- For the same reason that "lisp" has an "s" in it, there are five syllables in "monosyllabic," and Americans drive on a parkway and park in a driveway.
Alasdair Patrick, Dana Point, California USA
- ... and for the same reason "onomatopoeic" isn't onomatopoeic, "palindrome" isn't a palindrome and "fraction" is a whole word.
William Barrett, London NW10 UK
- Marc Loewenthal's answer simply begs another question - why is the Greek letter "phi" spelt like that?
Leo Hickey, Barking, Essex
- Greek `phi' is spelt `phi' becausethe Romans heard `p-hi' when theystarted writing Greek words. Whenthe Greeks advanced pronouncingit `fi' the Romans didn't care. So poorFrench, English and Germans stillhave to suffer from this and are notallowed to write as Spaniards do in`la filosofÃa fonetica'
Johannes Heinecke, France
- Actually the Germans are going through a somewhat absurd and painful reform of their spelling rules. 'Philosophie' is now only tolerated and the preferred spelling is 'Filosofie' causing headaches for teachers here, who have to teach the new rules. It remains unclear whether 'Filosophie' and 'Philosofie' are allowed. Another example is that Spaghetti has lost its 'h' as it was too difficult for the German children to learn to spell correctly - inuff sed ai ges
Michael Lovering, Dortmund Germany
- Either it is trying to make a point, or is missing the point entirely.
Chase, Princeton USA
- To help keep people like myself in a job (I'm a sub-editor).
Terry Bentley, London UK
- Bekoz inglish speling iz ridikyooles.
Paul Worthington, Reutlingen Germany
- There is a reason for English spelling! English spelling is so strange because English pronunciation is so particular, with minute variations and nuances. 'Ph' results in a softer sound than 'f'. I'm always amazed to find that people don't see that. The list of words that people think they could simplify by changing the spelling is vast - yet in every case it would result in the changing of the pronunciation.
JB, London
- English spelling reflects its history (England conquered by many before going on to conquer many and thereby coming across and absorbing many languages). This is also reflected in its highly attractive flexibility and basic weirdness, e.g. "This door is alarmed" - oh no it isn't, it can't be since it's an inanimate object.
Huw Roberts, Caerdydd Cymru
- For the same reason that "dyslexia" is a pig to spell and not being able to pronounce "r" correctly is called rhotacism.
Gareth Graham, Bristol UK
- JB has it wrong I'm afraid. There is no truth in the claim that ph is pronounced 'more softly' than f. If it was (and there may be slight differences in the pronunciation of this phoneme in different words, particularly as regards its place in the sequence of phonemes) this has nothing to do with the spelling. Ask any phoneticist. In fact, refer to the standard phonetic notation for f and ph, both indicated by /f/!
David Shariatmadari, London UK
- ..ph is also pronounced V..
stephen, London UK
- To mock those who cannot spell.
Rachel, USA
- Because the Ancient Greeks were weird, the Romans nicked anything they could get their hands on (Gods, culture, language etc), and the English are too stubborn to change anything! And why should we, by God!! :)
Gareth, Derby UK
- Where would we be without irony?
Simon Evans, London, UK
- In Ancient Greece, words such as "phonein" (to hear), or "thanatos" (death) actually were pronounced "p-h", "t-h". We know this because in some very old Greek inscriptions the letters are spelled out separately: Pi followed by the H-shaped Eta, which came to be used as a vowel in Classical times.This is why Roman writers, many of them Greek speakers, do not spell Greek ph- words using a Roman F - which was itself, incidentally, a discarded Greek letter (Digamma - two Gammas) once used to denote a vowel of interminate quality, between O and U.
Joihn Bennett, Glasgow, Scotland
- For the same reason that abbreviation is such a long word.
L Smith, Edinburgh, Scotland
- Why is dyslexic such a tricky word to spell would be a better question...
James, London UK
- Not only that, but (to quote Steven Wright, US monologuist) why is there no synonym for Thesaurus?
Glyn Morrow, York, UK
- Unsurprisingly, there are philosophical versions of this. 'Autological' adjectives describe themselves (e.g. 'short'); 'heterological' adjectives don't (.e.g 'monosyllabic'). The puzzle is: is 'heterological' heterological?
Paddy Davies, Wellington, New Zealand
- I wonder if the Greek 'ph' was pronounced something like the Japanese 'f' in Fuji, which itself sounds like a cross between an 'f' and a 'p'. I think the proper name for it is a bilabial fricative.
Jesse, Aarhus Denmark
- Why is this such an issue? Surely, when scholars and academics adopted Greek words into English, or created new words like telegraph, they tried to find a Latin-alphabet equivalent to the Greek letter Phi; none existed, and they wanted their new word to look posh and show its prestigious Greek origins, so they came up with the combination ~ph~ - and now we're stuck with it.
C Laugesen, Leyland UK
- It's a trick that people who can remember illogical spellings use to identify themselves to other people who can remember illogical spellings.
Caroline, Wellington, New Zealand
- The P/Π stands for the breakthrough into life.The Pi is the original ratio that defines space and time. The H defines the holy union/monad of Ham the He-brew son of Noah. Both are keys to knowledge. Thus the P&H in union becomes an Alpha Tetragramaton and takes form in Greekthus Φ.The life cycle vertically split taking on their combined powers.Thus we have in Φ a pentad an essential element that gave them the power to create special words of concepts such as light (photo),love (philo) and wise (sopho). So tell me how can one knowinglyleave out the ph in phonetic, phonem............sound.
Karl Tate,
- A Plan for the Improvement of English SpellingFor example, in Year 1 that useless letter c would be dropped to be replased either by k or s, and likewise x would no longer be part of the alphabet. The only kase in which c would be retained would be the ch formation, which will be dealt with later.Year 2 might reform w spelling, so that which and one would take the same konsonant, wile Year 3 might well abolish y replasing it with i and Iear 4 might fiks the g/j anomali wonse and for all.Jenerally, then, the improvement would kontinue iear bai iear with Iear 5 doing awai with useless double konsonants, and Iears 6-12 or so modifaiing vowlz and the rimeining voist and unvoist konsonants.Bai Iear 15 or sou, it wud fainali bi posibl tu meik ius ov thi ridandant letez c, y and x  bai now jast a memori in the maindz ov ould doderez  tu riplais ch, sh, and th rispektivli.Fainali, xen, aafte sam 20 iers ov orxogrefkl riform, wi wud hev a lojikl, kohirnt speling in ius xrewawt xe Ingliy-spiking werld.Mark Twain
Stephen Brady (for M Twain), Hannibal, Missouri USA
- I don't know the answer but it may be worth noting that in Hebrew the "f" and "p" sounds are related. They are both indicated by the same letter - peh - which when written with a dot in the middle is "p" and when written without the dot is "f". The sound of the letter can change - for example, if a word begins with the "p" sound, when you add a prefix it changes to the "f" sound. Or, if a word ends with the "f" sound and you add a suffix, it becomes the "p" sound.The Hebrew alphabet is derived from the ancient Semitic alphabet, which is also the source of the ancient Greek alphabet. So there may be some carry-over of the relationship of the "p" and "f" sounds in ancient Semitic languages into the Greek writing system.I'm just speculating - someone who knows something about ancient writing would probably know the answer.
Bloix, Washington, DC USA
- Because the word is built on "phone" not "fone". Spelling according to sound. A better question is why don't we just get rid of f all together? Nobody uses it anymore. Everybody wants to change f to ph and I've noticed that has only happened since the band Phish came onto the American culture. It's a fad. It's very stupid and it is just another sign of the breakdown of society. Language is the first to go.
Carol Ayers, McRae, USA
- My understanding is that it is only words with the "F" sound that originated from the Greek that are spelt with a "Ph". The Greek letter "Phi" is an "O" with an "I" through the middle, which may have given rise to the "P" and the "H" is just to signify the sound is not a "P" sound.
Graham Hempell, Chania, Greece
- I'm a phoneticist and a general linguist and "PH" and "F" are, indeed, pronounced the same, and are both represented by /f/ in the International Phonetic Alphabet.Greek Phi was once pronounced as a hard "P" in Ancient Greek. So, Latin inscriptions wrote it as "PH" to show that it's a P sound, but with more air with H. As Greek changed, so did the Greek based English words. In Modern Greek, Phi is pronounced as "F", and no longer like "PH"/a hard P.Oddly enough, in the International Phonetic Alphabet, Phi represents an F sound made by making the lips into a tiny circle and blowing out air, also known as a bilabial fricative, or an F made with the lips. Never has this letter Phi represented that sound in Greek except in the IPA.Hopefully I cleared some things up :)
Anastasio de la Luna, Simi Valley, CA USA
