Re: English {phth} (was: Hellenish oddities)

On Fri, Nov 24, 2000 at 07:41:31AM +0000, Raymond Brown wrote:
> At 9:02 pm -0500 23/12/00, Robert Hailman wrote:
> >"H. S. Teoh" wrote:
> [....]
> >> > Is <phthong> pronounced with [fT] in English? I would think it'd just
> >>be [T]
> >> > (but I'd probably say [fT] just to be different).
> >> [snip]
> >>
> >> I pronounce it as [fT].
> >
> >On it's own, I say it [T], in words like <diphthong> I say [fT]. [fT] is
> >just too hard to begin a word with for me.
>
> Yep, that the normal English practice - same as we don't normally pronounce
> the initial p- in Ptolemy, pterodactyl, ptyalin etc.  But elsewhere we do
> pronounce the -p-, e.g. helicopter.
I sometimes muse about how <parapsychology> should be pronounced
/p{r@psai"kal@dZi/, but I suppose the silence of the second <p> is due to
its being coined from the word <psychology> in which it is also silent.

> But medial [fT] is interesting in that in colloquial speech one often hears
> [pT] - years ago when "diphtheria" was, sadly, occurred more often in
> speech, one heard it pronounced [dIp'Ti:ri@] more often than not IIRC.  And
> I've definitely heard people talk about ['dIpTONz].
I admit that medial [pT] of that type seems more natural to me, but I tend
to chastise myself for using it (even though I don't believe in prescriptive
linguistics -- shame on me!) I think I've also heard people say /pt/, but
I'm not too sure; however, I am sure I've heard people pronounce /st/ in
words like <anesthesia> where I always say /sT/.

--
Eric Christopherson / *Aiworegs Ghristobhorosyo