Where does the PH F sound come from?

Where does the PH F sound come from?

3 Answers. “Ph” is most commonly used in words that come from Greek, like “philosophy”. The Greek letter that makes the “F” sound is “phi”, written like φ. As for “Gh”, most of the words containing it come from German and old English.

Why does ph make an F sound in English?

Is PH the same as F?

Most of the time, PH is pronounced like an F , not as two separate sounds. However, there are exceptions to this rule. You’ll also find out how PH became part of the English language. If you want to sound more like a native speaker, get your pronunciation right.

What is the PH sound called?

A digraph is a combination of two letters that make a single sound, as in the “ph” in “phone.” In fact, the word “digraph” contains a digraph.

How was ph pronounced in Latin?

The diagraph ph in Classical Latin represents an “aspirated voiceless plosive,” which means that it sounds like the p in the English word pot – a strong p sound, with aspiration (if you put your hand in front of your face, you’ll feel air when you say it).

What is the ph sound called?

How do you know when to use F or ph?

Yes. If the word is of Greek origin, spell it with “ph” where the “f” would normally go. Examples: “phone,” “photo,” “phosphorescent,” and so on. If the word is not of Greek origin, spell it with an “f.” Examples: “font,” “food,” “fool,” and so on.

Is PH Latin or Greek?

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.

How do you know when to use pH or F?

Why do some words have a pH sound in them?

Categories. 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.

Why does the word “pH” have a “F” in it?

When the pronunciation of the Greek aspirates changed – in the New Testament Greek period – the change was reflected in Latin, for the reasons listed above: it was “classy” to pronounce the words as they were pronounced in Greek. But the spellings remained the same, so even though “ph” made the “f” sound now, it continued to be spelled “ph”.

Why is the Greek letter P pronounced as a pH?

In Classical Greek this was pronounced as an aspirated [pʰ], which the Latins wrote as ph when they borrowed the words from Greek. Later this sound changed into an [f] in both Greek and Latin, and was passed as such into French, and then into English.

How do you spell the f sound in Greek?

The /f/ sound is usually spelled with the letter f, or ff if after a short vowel – this is covered in Unit 4. In some words, the /f/ sound is spelled using the digraph ph . These are often words from the ancient Greek language.