How do you pronounce phi?

ramollari

Yes the Greeks pronounce it "fee" being a letter of the alphabet. But the English pronounce it "fie" not to confuse it with f from their alphabet.

Monique

Pronounciating can be confusing, fie in european is pronounced the same as fee in english. Most europeans (if not all?) pronounce the letter as the english speaking pronounce fee.

brewnog

That's rich, coming from an American...

Chi Meson

To pronounce things as the original people pronounce them is impossible because they are all dead. The modern Greek pronunciation of the Greek letters is different from the classical greek pronounciation (mostly for the vowels). Depending on which part of Greece you go to, "chi" could be pronounce "kee" or "khee" (sort of like a scottish or semitic "ch" sound). AN american would sound silly making either of these sounds, so this one is sually pronounce "kai."


My quantum professor started talking about the "Witchy Wector" one day. It's finally funny now.

akula

First off, greetings, I finally became official after reading this site for a while.

To the matter at hand -

From Greek in College, some letters change pronunciation based on where they are located.

As for Phi, if it is follow be a vowel, it would be like "Fee", otherwise, it would be "Fie".

Same for Xi, after a vowel, it's "Zee", otherwise, it's like "Zai"

(Languages are a little hobby of mine, and they're fun to collect)

Edgardo

http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?va=xi
Two versions of Xi.

http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionar...va=phi&x=0&y=0
Phi is pronounced like "phy" here.

http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionar...va=chi&x=0&y=0
This is interesting. Two versions of chi.

Andromeda321

I say both in all honesty: when I give it some thought I say "fee" because I know that's how it's supposed to be pronounced. When I'm thinking rapidly in my head, however, I say "fie" and that's been known to carry into my conversations whenever I'm thinking too quickly to "convert" it in my mind.

gnome

That's rich, coming from a Brit...

chroot

akula has it right. φ is pronounced differently when it follows a vowel versus a consonant. Hence, all the confusion. It seems "fee" is the most common pronunciation, and I find it easier to ray rapidly than "fie."

- Warren

gnome

Why don't we just call it fo?

Andromeda321

Because then we need a "fum."

Pengwuino

Coming from a Brit, thats rather humorous. Chip chip cheereo

Pengwuino

Well obviously. But id go with what the descendants would say :D. Might as well do that before the brits screw it up even more.