Is there any English word in which "ph" is not pronounced as "f"? [duplicate]
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.
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.
Also :
- flophouse
- loophole
- peephole
- uphill
and Stephen.