roots - Pterodactyl and Archeopteryx: Silent P vs Voiced P


These words share the Greek root πτέρυξ (pteryx), meaning feather/wing, but the P in pterodactyl is silent (in the initial position), while the P in archeopteryx (in the middle of the word) is voiced.


Why is this, and what's the rule? Is it just that that's how the ancient Greeks pronounced it, or is there something more subtle going on?



Answer



Π (pi) in Greek is pronounced as P in English, and Τ (tau) in Greek is pronounced as T in English.


Greek though is quite okay with PT at the start of a syllable, while that isn't a phoneme cluster we have in English.


So, while we can pronounce both letters if we end one syllable with P and start the next with T, we will make the P silent at the start of a word.


This has happened for some time, since while pterodactyl is a relatively recent word, we've been talking about Ptolemy for quite some time.


Comparably, when we import Ξ from Greek as X, we'll pronounce it KS in the middle of a word, but change to a Z sound at the beginning, as discussed at this question.


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