pronunciation - Is there any English word in which "ph" is not pronounced as "f"?



A few days ago, a friend and I were discussing how every "rule" of English spelling or pronunciation has an exception, and every exception has an exception as well. Then I brought up the rule of a ph cluster equaling an f sound (as in phonetic, elephant, morph, etc.) as a pronunciation rule that didn't have any exceptions I could think of. Is this a true hard-and-fast rule or does it have some exceptions as well? I'm not counting abbreviations such as pH scale.



Answer



The exceptions come in two categories:



  • Greek words that were originally pronounced with an "f" — diphtheria, diphthong, ophthalmology, phthisis — but have come to be pronounced with a "p" by no process I understand.

  • Compound words — uphold, saphead, peephole — that are just a word ending in "p" run up against a word beginning with an "h".


Neither of those really feel like exceptions: mispronunciations that have become accepted and two words being treated as one.


Then there is aphelion. Arguably, that's a compound word and a mistake. By analogy with apogee and apastron, it should be apohelion: "apo" ("from") + "helion" ("sun").


Several people brought up "Stephen", which is often pronounced like "Steven". Eh, I think we should play with Scrabble rules: no proper names.


Finally, there is an example that will really blow your minds: phthalate. The ph- is silent.


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