- #1
honestrosewater
Gold Member
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From another thread:
I saw a Latin alphabet pronunciation list mentioning that ch, ph, and th represented chi, phi, and theta, respectively. So is it that simple? Latin borrowed from Greek and changed the spelling, which survives today, for example, in chronograph?
Actually, should the title be more like Greek -> Latin -> ... -> Modern English?
Oh, and my hunch is that MB is recognizing the morphemes, for example, chrono- and -graph.
My first thought was that most of English's ph words come from Greek. I'll try to find out for myself later, but does anyone already know if that's the case (perhaps it is at least the case in scientific terminology, which I imagine MB would encounter often)?Moonbear said:I have never been able to explain how it is that I can spell a word I've never seen in writing before. There just seem to be basic patterns, that even more irregularly spelled words fit a pattern...something about the meaning or the rest of the word tells me that a ph might be used instead of an f.
I saw a Latin alphabet pronunciation list mentioning that ch, ph, and th represented chi, phi, and theta, respectively. So is it that simple? Latin borrowed from Greek and changed the spelling, which survives today, for example, in chronograph?
Actually, should the title be more like Greek -> Latin -> ... -> Modern English?
Oh, and my hunch is that MB is recognizing the morphemes, for example, chrono- and -graph.
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