2006-08-16 05:06:11 · 9 answers · asked by boring g 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
Because it is spelled as it is derived. etic means as derived and phone comes from the Greek word phonetikos (phone - voice). The word, therefore is concerned with the sound that the voice makes. Phonetically speaking it would be spelled 'fo-net-ik'. Good question though.
2006-08-16 05:21:40 · answer #1 · answered by quatt47 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
This is often asked more as a joke. But perhaps you'll find the following of some value.
First, this "ph" need not cause any confusion, because this combination is ALWAYS pronounced as "f" (unless the letters are parts of separate syllables, but that is impossible at the beginning of a word!)
In fact, "ph" has a very long history as a representation of the f-sound. Specifically, it is a "digraph" -- or 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
Of course, in all those cases, the alphabet lacks a consonant to represent the sound (esp. since the loss of the letters called "thorn" and "eth"-- used for the "th" sounds [with the voice -"the"; without the voice "math"]) so English speakers had to invent some way to represent those sounds.
But there is an explanation and a value to the "ph" spelling. English borrowed it for Greek words borrowed THROUGH Latin. It was in Latin that certain conventions for representing the Greek sounds was developed. One of these was "ph" for the Greek letter "phi". (Originally, in the Latin borrowing the sound of "ph" was different from Latin "f", which explains why this new convention developed.) By keeping the "historical orthography [=spelling]" in these cases it is still possible to recognize words of Greek origin, and sometimes to tell something more about how the word is pronounced.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_words_of_Greek_origin#The_written_form_of_Greek_words_in_English
2006-08-16 05:40:57 · answer #2 · answered by bruhaha 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Thaths phunnie.
2006-08-16 05:11:00 · answer #3 · answered by BuyTheSeaProperty 7 · 0⤊ 3⤋
Good question!
2006-08-16 05:11:28 · answer #4 · answered by cougarfan_jared 2 · 1⤊ 2⤋
It is in Urdu.
2006-08-16 05:12:39 · answer #5 · answered by Gallivanting Galactic Gadfly 6 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Because then it would be ebonics...
2006-08-16 05:11:20 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
Because that would be to easy...LOL
2006-08-16 05:11:26 · answer #7 · answered by kim h 3 · 0⤊ 3⤋
great one.
2006-08-16 05:10:56 · answer #8 · answered by kittens 5 · 0⤊ 2⤋
HAHAHAHAHAAHHAH
ok thanks .. I needed that!
2006-08-16 05:11:31 · answer #9 · answered by sam21462 5 · 0⤊ 3⤋