- In a few words from Greek, e appears at the end of a word and has long e sound \ē\: Some examples are acme, apostrophe, and hyperbole.
- A \k\ sound in English often represents a sound from Greek that we don't actually use, and the most common spelling of this sound in English is ch: See anachronism, arachnid, character, chronic, chronology, dichotomy, hierarchy, matriarch, melancholy, patriarch, synchronous, notochord, tachometer, and gynarchy.
- The most frequent sound that y gets in words from Greek is short i (\i\) as in acronym, calypso, cryptic, cynical, dyslexia, eponym, homonym, myriad, Olympian, synchronous, synergy, synonym, synopsis, syntax, symbiosis and polymer.
- A long i sound (\ī\) in a word that comes from Greek is sometimes represented by y, especially after h, as in hydraulic, hydrology, hygiene, hyperbole, hyphen, hypothesis, dynamic, cynosure, gynarchy, xylophone and pyre.
- In ancient Greek, the letter phi (pronounced \fī\) represented a breathy or "aspirated" version of the sound that is represented in English by f. Speakers of Roman-alphabet languages did not have this sound or a corresponding letter, so they substituted the \f\ sound but memorialized the original sound of phi by using ph to spell it. As a result, the English \f\ sound almost always appears as ph in words of Greek origin. Consider, for example: amphibious, apostrophe, cacophony, diphthong, epiphany, euphemism, hyphen, metamorphosis, metaphor, periphery, phenomenon, philanthropy, philately, philhellenism, spherical, topography, xylophone, and zephyr. Hundreds of words in English derived from Greek show this spelling.
- The letter o is the vowel most often used to connect two Greek word elements. If the connecting vowel sound is a schwa (\ə\) as in xylophone, notochord, orthodox, ergonomic, geoponics, and asthmogenic and you must guess at the spelling of this sound, the letter o is a very good guess. The non–study-list words hypnotist, geometric, and electrolyte are among the many, many words made of Greek word elements connected by o.
- The \j\ sound is always spelled with g in words from Greek. Why? When the \j\ sound appears in words of Greek origin, it does so as an anglicized pronunciation of a root originally pronounced with a hard g. Note that no j appears in any of the words on this list!
- A schwa in words from Greek is occasionally spelled with y: See analysis, etymology, misogynist, odyssey, and zephyr.
mar 18 2019 ∞
apr 6 2019 +