Timeline for Why is a 'ph' or 'gh' used instead of an 'f' in commonly used English words like Elephant and Enough?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
9 events
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| Dec 4, 2015 at 7:56 | comment | added | Stan Rogers | Aspirated P or voiceless bilabial fricative (/ɸ/, like the "F" in Fuji)? It's entirely likely that what we're seeing is the remnant of a transitional form between the ancient ancient Greek /pʰ/ and the modern /f/, and since the voiceless bilabial fricative doesn't exist in Latin (or French or English, old or modern) it would likely be heard and rendered as an F. All languages (except recent creoles) have long and sloppy histories; it's not just an English thing. | |
| Dec 4, 2015 at 1:07 | comment | added | Euan M | The sound of "gh" in many areas remains almost identical to the Esperanto character h-with a circumflex, or the Scottish aspirated "ch" sound. "Lough" in Northern Ireland, "trough" in Scotland, etc. | |
| S Dec 3, 2015 at 13:19 | history | suggested | rexkogitans | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
gh in German produces "g" vithin a syllable, "g+h" in between. It is German "ch" to produce Old-English "gh".
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| Dec 3, 2015 at 13:18 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| S Dec 3, 2015 at 13:19 | |||||
| Dec 3, 2015 at 13:09 | comment | added | StoneyB on hiatus | @SteveJessop Because in ancient Greek the letter phi ‹Φ› was pronounced as an aspirate /pʰ/; it contrasted with the pi ‹Π› = /p/ (and with the digamma ‹Ϝ› = /w/, which most Greek dialects had lost). The Romans (who had in the meantime borrowed the digamma for Latin /f/) marked the distinction by transliterating ‹Φ› as ‹ph›. The Modern Greek pronunciation /f/ is a later development. | |
| Dec 3, 2015 at 12:52 | comment | added | Steve Jessop | Btw, this still leaves open the question "why isn't the Greek letter that makes the "F" sound "fi", written like φ?" :-) My guess is that the Romans did it, but I don't know why. | |
| Dec 3, 2015 at 8:45 | vote | accept | Varun Nair | ||
| Dec 3, 2015 at 6:25 | comment | added | Varun Nair | English is super weird. Well, so are all the languages. Thanks for the information. Much appreciated. | |
| Dec 3, 2015 at 6:21 | history | answered | Deusovi | CC BY-SA 3.0 |