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SEMANTIC ENIGMAS

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' because the Romans heard `p-hi' when they started writing Greek words. When the Greeks advanced pronouncing it `fi' the Romans didn't care. So poor French, English and Germans still have to suffer from this and are not allowed to write as Spaniards do in `la filosofía 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 knowingly leave out the ph in phonetic, phonem............sound.

    Karl Tate,


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