Why is it "phonics", and not "phonix" or "phonicks" or "fonicks" or "fonix"? Isn't English a curious language?

Answer 1

Yes! That's why it is one of the hardest to learn.

Have you seen this email:

Let's face it - English is a crazy language.
There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger, neither apple nor pine in pineapple.

English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France.
Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat.

We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?

If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth beeth?
One goose, two geese. So one moose, two meese? One index, two indices?

Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?

Sometimes I think all English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.

In what language do people recite a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.

English was invented by people and not computers and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all.

That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

PS Why doesn't BUICK rhyme with QUICK?

Answer 2

Not so much curious as diverse (even rich) in borrowing from many different sources.

The key in this case its the "phonics" is a Greek word borrowed into English THROUGH Latin. It is this specific history that explains the spelling conventions. Had it come from a Germanic/Anglo-Saxon word we would expect something like "fonicks". . .but it isn't!

The main question is usually about the use of "ph" for the f-sound. This is, in fact, a long-standing practice. The combination is a "digraph" -- set of two letters used to represent one sound. Other standard digraphs in English are "ch", "sh" and "th".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digraph_(orthography)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H#Value

More specifically, the "ph" digraph is from Latin -- it was the Latin way of representing the sound of the Greek-letter "phi" when borrowing a Greek word. Why not simply a Latin "f"? Originally, in the Latin borrowing the sound of "ph" was different from Latin "f"so they used "ph" to distinguish the two.

By keeping the "historical orthography [=spelling]" in these cases it is still possible to recognize English words of Greek origin, and sometimes to tell something more about how the word is pronounced. (Note that spelling is not JUST to give us the pronunciations -- else every dialect of English would have to spell many things differently! It also tells us such things as the way various words are related, even when certain forms change the pronunciation [thus we KEEP the "t" in "soften" which connects it with "soft"] and something of the history of the word.)

The "c" for the /k/ -sound is likewise due to LATIN use of this letter for the sound.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_words_of_Greek_origin#The_written_form_of_Greek_words_in_English

Answer 3

Phonics comes from the Greek word PHONI-ΦΩΝΗ and takes the Greek type plural so this is the right way.Phonix would be a monster

Answer 4

English is very curious, indeed. I guess whoever made the word thought "Phonics" looked better than the other spellings of it...

Answer 5

Yes, but we are used to it ... Phonics worked for me!

Answer 6

phonetic (and therefore phonics) comes from the modern Latin phoneticus and from the Greek
phinetikos each meaning speak....

Answer 7

they are able to't be banned because of the fact their no longer genuinely component to the language. What I recommend with the aid of it is that its no longer formally an English be conscious purely a slang be conscious, and you'd be able to't ban slang words. And anyhow i do no longer locate something undesirable with them its purely a be conscious no longer something to get disillusioned approximately...... possibly sooner or later they'll end asserting it. purely for you shawty!!!! hear to me my homie, those slang words aint nothin yet words boiiii you sense me my shawty sais them and that i aint ever gonna attempt to banish them you sense. Thang!!!

Answer 8

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Answer 9

Yes, the English language is a a grand old whore who loves to tease her clients.

Answer 10

English is a curious language... here's another one for you... Phydeaux (pronounced Fido) my favorite name for a cat!