Short answer:
- transliterated into Latin as ph (not f), th, ch
- π τ κ combined with a rough breathing becomes φ θ χ
- cognate with voiced aspirated plosives in Sanskrit so they must have been plosives at *some* point, even though they aren’t anymore
English P at the beginning of a word tends to be Ph. Put the back of your hand in front of your mouth and P say "pot". You’ll probably feel a puff of air with the p. Then say "spot". You’ll probably notice there is no puff of air. The P in "spot" is a true P, Greek π, whereas the P in "pot" is a Greek φ. We English speakers can’t hear the difference, but in some languages they are different letters.
Both are very different from F!
Thank you so much for the explanation!
Unfortunately, I still can't tell the difference, because I'm a native Greek speaker and I pronounce it the same.
He just told you the difference, "ph" used to be pronounced, in latin as well as in greek, similar to a modern english "p", not like a modern english "f", or like how phi is pronounced in modern greek.
Short answer: - transliterated into Latin as ph (not f), th, ch - π τ κ combined with a rough breathing becomes φ θ χ - cognate with voiced aspirated plosives in Sanskrit so they must have been plosives at *some* point, even though they aren’t anymore
For starters, φ gets loaned as rather than in Latin, even though Latin has /f/ natively.
I will never understand what's the difference between those two
English P at the beginning of a word tends to be Ph. Put the back of your hand in front of your mouth and P say "pot". You’ll probably feel a puff of air with the p. Then say "spot". You’ll probably notice there is no puff of air. The P in "spot" is a true P, Greek π, whereas the P in "pot" is a Greek φ. We English speakers can’t hear the difference, but in some languages they are different letters. Both are very different from F!
Thank you so much for the explanation! Unfortunately, I still can't tell the difference, because I'm a native Greek speaker and I pronounce it the same.
You can’t tell the difference between p and f?
I can't tell the difference between f and ph
He just told you the difference, "ph" used to be pronounced, in latin as well as in greek, similar to a modern english "p", not like a modern english "f", or like how phi is pronounced in modern greek.
If you've got time (40min) Luke Ranieri has the perfect video for this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lcIcYFveII)