[G. Stolyarov II]

inquest: "Just wanted to point out that, properly speaking, there is a slight difference in pronunciation between f and ph. F is a labiodentral fricative (pronounced with the bottom row of teeth joining with the upper lip), whereas ph is a bilabial fricative (with the bottom lip taking the place of the bottom row of teeth from the prior example)."

Mr. Stolyarov: Having repeatedly pronounced words that, under the conventional orthografy, are spelled with "f" and "ph," I find that both sounds are pronounced in the same manner, with the TOP row of teeth joining the LOWER lip. Both of the approaches that you had suggested are, in my estimation, cumbersome and impractical in the course of a fast-paced conversation. In any case, the MANNER in which a given sound is produced may differ among various persons, but the sound ITSELF is objectively the same; it exhibits the same combination of wave frequencies that define its nature. Similarly, one may be able to prove a given property in numerous ways (say, by induction, or indirect proof, or a simple rearrangement of terms in an algebraic equality), but the property itself remains unaltered by that fact.

[inquest]

Having repeatedly pronounced words that, under the conventional orthografy, are spelled with "f" and "ph," I find that both sounds are pronounced in the same manner, with the TOP row of teeth joining the LOWER lip.

Sorry, you're right. I was being orally dyslexic. So to recap: f, dentrolabial (bottom lip, top row); ph, bilabial (both lips). As for being too much of a burden to switch pronunciations, you may be right, which would explain why the Greeks decided to ditch the F, back when it had both an F (called a "digamma") and a "phi" in its alphabet.

There is something else you may want to consider. Even though p and ph were represented as separate letters in Greek, even that language considered them to be closely related. For example, the word ephemeral is from a combination of epi- (or ep-) and hemeron. But when they're combined into one word, the ph is written as the single letter phi.