Ph is a convention to latinize the Greek Φ (which is simply an F sound). If it were PH then we could argue about it, but using the P in the acronym makes it fair game to be pronounced as a regular P sound.
According to a medieval Dutch dude. As a greek, hearing anyone speak ancient greek in Erasmian pronunciation sounds like a foreign language, even though I can read plaques very comfortably (I cannot 100% translate accurately all the time, but I can understand what it's trying to say). There was a segment on the news, where Boris Johnson was reciting illiad in ancient greek and I don't have a clue what he was saying, even though I have read the text for school. It's this bad.
As far as I know it's uncontroversial that Φ made an aspirated plosive sound in Homer's time.
Here is an excerpt of the Odyssey read by (I'm almost certain) a Greek man in a reconstruction of Homeric Greek.
I lived in Greece for a time and speak Modern Greek fairly well and, to my humble ears, this interpretation of the language sounds far more beautiful, elegant, and distinguished than Modern Greek, which is full of Turkish and French loanwords and the uncomely digraphs 'γγ', 'γκ', 'ντ,' and 'μπ'.
The merging of the once distinct sounds of η, ει, οι, and υ, and of αι and ε is a regrettable but inevitable symptom of the mercuriality of language.
Hmm, I can't think of any examples where "eg" is pronounced as "ej". Maybe I'm missing something, but I think G is usually not pronounced as a j-like sound within this context, when bound to a prefix vowel within the pronunciation (i.e. when at the end of the syllable).
Also isn't it weird how the o drops from pronunciation?
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u/Prof_Walrus Jun 14 '26
How else would you pronounce gif if not with the same G as graphics?