I was remembering when I was in second grade my teacher told me that the only word where ph was not pronounced like f was shepheard.
So I innocently looked at her and said “How about uphill?” I thought she was gonna kill me. She later explained that didn’t count as it was a compound word. But isn’t shepheard just a compound word too?
Anyone else know of any others?
I’d have to uphold your conclusion.
Did you always create such an upheaval in your classrooms as a child, Markxxx?
Saw an ad on the side of a city bus yesterday for HIPHOPHUT. It took awhile before I could get my brain to let go of “high foe fut” long enough to re-see it as “hip hop hut”. Addicted to phonics?
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In the English pronunciation of “phthalein,” the “ph” is totally silent! It’s actually pronounced in the original Greek. Also, I think the “ph” is simply a device adopted long ago to show that a word is of Greek origin. The letter phi is a single Greek letter pronounced like an “f.”
IIRC, the archaic Greek sound represented by phi was an aspirated P. Spray air out in a H-type sound while making a P sound. You can see how it became an F quickly in classic Greek.
In the Maori language the diphthong ‘wh’ is used to represent an ‘f’ sound. Maori whakawhetai, (“thanks”); Samoan fa’afetai.
Purists will tell you the sound is not really an ‘f’ but an aspirated ‘w’ (it is occasionally even written as ‘hw’), but these pore ol’ American ears could never hear the difference. It is never silent, however.
“non sunt multiplicanda entia praeter necessitatem”
– William of Ockham
Markxxx:I was remembering when I was in second grade my teacher told me that the only word where ph was not pronounced like f was shepheard.
So I innocently looked at her and said “How about uphill?” I thought she was gonna kill me. She later explained that didn’t count as it was a compound word. But isn’t shepheard jus a compound word too?
Her “shepherd” has evolved from “sheepherder”, a compound word. But I’d say it’s no longer a compound word.
It’s still a rotton reason for her to squash your innate intelligence. Compound or not, it’s still a word.
Yes I was a wise guy. Remind me someday to tell you about the time I went to the library and when no one was looking I talked loud 