ok seriously....why is phonics spelled with ph??

Question

I mean, a whole generation was educated using the so called wonderful phonics program- right?
learn by sounding out the words and all that...well the younger generations can not spell now....

shouldnt they have spelled their program..... fonics?

Answer 1

"ph" pronounced as /f/ is a long-recognized representation of the f-sound. So, when someone sees "ph", especially at the beginning of a word, there should not be any confusion -- it make the /f/ sound.

This combination of two letters to represent one sound --called a "digraph" is also used for "ch", "sh" and "th".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digraph_(orthography)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H#Value

Now 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, since we HAVE the letter "f", why use "ph"?

There is an explanation and a value to this spelling. English takes this spelling from Latin, specifically 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

Answer 2

"phon" is a root coming from the Latin word for "sound". That's why phonics is spelled with "ph".

The spelling system of English represents a lot about the history of where certain English words came from.

And teaching kids to read using phonics is a whole lot better than the alternative, sometimes called the "whole language approach". The generation previous to the phonics generation was taught with "whole language", and those guys are much worse. The lucky ones figured out the phonics on their own.

Do a little bit of research about reading education and you'll discover what I'm talking about.

Answer 3

Phonics was not designed to teach spelling per se. Don't believe me? call 1-800-Phonics and ask them. It is a reading program based on the proper pronunciation of the spelling. "ph" is pronounced "f" therefore, you learn to read the word as "fonics" When you spell the wordphonics, you have learned that it is ph not f.

Answer 4

I suppose you talk on the telefone.

And maybe you know some people who study Filosofy.

Unbelievable. Ph makes an F sound, you know. "Phonics" is not misspelled.

Phonics - A method of teaching elementary reading and spelling based on the phonetic interpretation of ordinary spelling.
- a method of teaching beginners to read and pronounce words by learning the phonetic value of letters, letter groups, and especially syllables
- teaching reading by training beginners to associate letters with their sound values

Answer 5

Well, "ph" is ALWAYS pronounced with an "f" sound.
I don't know about everyone else but I can spell well because I can tell that a word is spelled wrong by looking at it.

Epifany looks wrong.
Epiphany looks right.

Father looks right.
Phather doesn't.

Catastrophe looks right.
Catastrofe doesn't.

Answer 6

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With Children Learning Reading you will teach your youngster how to split up seems and separate phrases in to phonemes, an important point as soon as your child is just learning how to spell.
The studying system from Children Learning Reading program allows you for children to learn quickly and properly, from easy phrases to phrases till they learn to learn stories.

Answer 7

the same reason for i before e except after c...

there is a conspiricy against every american child learning english or anybody else learning it. they want us to all be so confused that we eventually can't read and the people coming up with stupid stuff like that rule the world...
lol i love conspiries

Answer 8

i think what you are talking about is the phonetical spelling and has nothing to do with phonics

Answer 9

Phor the Phun of it.

OK seriously...the word doesn't sound right if you switch the letters. For example, try saying, "Hponics."

Answer 10

the "ph" with an "f" sound is derived from the greek language.