Why is 'phonetic' spelt with a 'ph'?

Paul Morgan, Bristol UK

• Either it is trying to make a point, or is missing the point entirely.

  Chase, Princeton USA

• To help keep people like myself in a job (I'm a sub-editor).

  Terry Bentley, London UK

• There is a reason for English spelling! English spelling is so strange because English pronunciation is so particular, with minute variations and nuances. 'Ph' results in a softer sound than 'f'. I'm always amazed to find that people don't see that. The list of words that people think they could simplify by changing the spelling is vast - yet in every case it would result in the changing of the pronunciation.

  JB, London

• ..ph is also pronounced V..

  stephen, London UK

• To mock those who cannot spell.

  Rachel, USA

• Because the Ancient Greeks were weird, the Romans nicked anything they could get their hands on (Gods, culture, language etc), and the English are too stubborn to change anything! And why should we, by God!! :)

  Gareth, Derby UK

• Where would we be without irony?

  Simon Evans, London, UK

• Why is dyslexic such a tricky word to spell would be a better question...

  James, London UK

• Not only that, but (to quote Steven Wright, US monologuist) why is there no synonym for Thesaurus?

  Glyn Morrow, York, UK

• I wonder if the Greek 'ph' was pronounced something like the Japanese 'f' in Fuji, which itself sounds like a cross between an 'f' and a 'p'. I think the proper name for it is a bilabial fricative.

  Jesse, Aarhus Denmark

• Why is this such an issue? Surely, when scholars and academics adopted Greek words into English, or created new words like telegraph, they tried to find a Latin-alphabet equivalent to the Greek letter Phi; none existed, and they wanted their new word to look posh and show its prestigious Greek origins, so they came up with the combination ~ph~ - and now we're stuck with it.

  C Laugesen, Leyland UK

• The P/Π stands for the breakthrough into life.The Pi is the original ratio that defines space and time. The H defines the holy union/monad of Ham the He-brew son of Noah. Both are keys to knowledge. Thus the P&H in union becomes an Alpha Tetragramaton and takes form in Greekthus Φ.The life cycle vertically split taking on their combined powers.Thus we have in Φ a pentad an essential element that gave them the power to create special words of concepts such as light (photo),love (philo) and wise (sopho). So tell me how can one knowingly leave out the ph in phonetic, phonem............sound.

  Karl Tate,

• Because the word is built on "phone" not "fone". Spelling according to sound. A better question is why don't we just get rid of f all together? Nobody uses it anymore. Everybody wants to change f to ph and I've noticed that has only happened since the band Phish came onto the American culture. It's a fad. It's very stupid and it is just another sign of the breakdown of society. Language is the first to go.

  Carol Ayers, McRae, USA