Re: Fricativization as it happens

Matthew Turnbull wrote:
> where do we have /ph/? we have <ph>=/f/, but /ph/?
haphazard, uphill

------------------------------------------------

Ollock Ackeop wrote:
[snip]
 >
 > BTW, is <ph>=/f/ really from a sound change in English anywhere?  I had

Nope.

 > presumed it came down from Greek terms -- some of them maybe borrowed
 > through French.

You presume correctly. Altho when the Romans transcribed Greek phi as
_ph_ it was pronounced [p_h] in educated speech, the graffiti _Dafne_ (=
Daphne) from Pompeii is a pretty clear indication that the change [p_h]
--> [f] was already underway in popular speech by the mid 1st cent. CE,
and seems to have become general in all levels of speech before the end
of the 4th cent. CE. When words of Greek origin were borrowed into
English _ph_ was already pronounced [f]; it wasn't a change that
happened in English.

> We obviously still have [p_h] as  well as [ph].
Yep = every initial /p/ is [p_h] of course, and we have [ph] in
in the words I gave above. it also occurs in some pronunciations of
_shepherd_, and I suspect in a few other words as well.

--
Ray
==================================
http://www.carolandray.plus.com
==================================
CENEDL HEB IAITH, CENEDL HEB GALON.
(A nation without a language is a
nation without a heart)
[Welsh proverb]

Replies