Calling All Alpha Phis
 

ummmm, sorry if you get this a lot and there's a thread on this (dunno if there is).

But, why is it pronounced FEE?

it is pronounced fee here because it is after a vowel.

Then shouldn't it be pronounced Alpha Epsilon FEE, and Tau Epsilon FEE?

confused
 

I thought it was pronounced FEE because it was for a female group.... any aphi's here to clarify??/

I don't know what the meaning of it is either, but if it means it's because it's a female organization, then wouldn't I be a member of Gamma "FEE" Beta? ;)

It is pronounced fee because the last letter before the word phi is a vowel (alphA)-
We (AEPhi) prounounce it phi because epsilon does not end in a vowel.
Does that help?

That was my understanding too. Plus, if we started pronouncing it FEE we'd have to change too many of our songs... :D

Same reason it's Alpha "Zee" Delta, not Alpha "zeye" Delta.

The whole vowel thing makes life difficult though.

Pi - Fee would sound odd....

TG

This is what I understand.....

If the Phi is the second letter of a Greek name, and the first letter of the Greek name is a vowel, and there is no third letter, it is pronounced FEE.

EX:

(VOWEL) (PHI) (NOTHING) = (VOWEL) (FEE)

When I say "vowel," I am referring to those letters that are vowels in the Greek language, not having a vowel at the end of a word (ex: alphA) like is quoted below.

Hope that helps!!!!!!!

SATX*APhi, that is also my understanding.

However, I'm still confused, because then why is it Alpha "Zee" Delta???

From "Phi Facts" on several local Alpha Phi chapter websites:
This sounds sort of “urban-legend-y” to me. Why would the ancient Greeks have a need to make up rules for using letters in acronyms? Pronunciation rules for words - yes. But for standalone letters?

It was always my understanding that Alpha Phi was simply more true to the original Greek pronunciation of the alphabet: Phee, Chee, Psee, Zee, Tawe, etc.

(so actually, TrojanGirl, "pi phi" would be “pee-fee” – even better!)

Can anyone verify this “only after a vowel” rule anywhere other than an Alpha Phi website. I study a lot of Greek and have never heard of this before, so I’m very curious.

wptw

I was having a discussion about the pronunciation of "Phi" this weekend and I was referred to the following webpages which have pronunciation guides for the greek alphabet:

http://www.cogsci.indiana.edu/farg/h...an/grkphon.htm
http://www.mathacademy.com/pr/prime/...reek/index.asp
http://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/l.../alphabet.html

According to these pages the letter "Phi" is pronounced "Fee" in Modern Greek. There are many different pronunciations of Greek words, but current academics believe that Modern Greek is the closest to New Testament Greek (but not identical).

I could not find anything that lends validity to the idea that the pronunciation is different when the Phi follows a vowel, or is the second letter without a third.

Laura

Laura, thank you, thank you, thank you for posting those links! I tried to do a pronunciation guide on here a few months ago, and it was a pain in the neck! :rolleyes:

As for "fee" not "phi" because of a vowel, I don't remember ever being taught that rule. All I know is that we always pronounced it "fee" at home.

Do the other Greek-Greeks on GC (Annie or Lexi) know something that I wasn't taught?

It's actually a lot simpler than all of this, as some others have suggested. The Greek pronunciation of the name of the Greek letter F is always "Fee." In Greek, the name of the letter is spelled Fi. For it to be pronounced "Fie" it would be spelled Fai. F is never pronounced "Fie" in Greek -- that is a North American, anglicized pronunciation.

In the same fashion, all of the other letters with an "i" in them are pronounced "ee" in Greek: Iota = "EE-ota" (or "Yota"); Xi = "KSee"; Pi = "Pee"; Chi = "Chee" (with a German or Scottish shounding "ch" like "ach" or "loch"); and Psi = "PSee."

The bottom line is that no GLO I've ever heard of uses the Greek pronunciation for the Greek letters that form our names -- even the Alpha Phi's use "al-fa" instead of "ahl-fah." We all used anglicized pronunciations.

The site that lauradav put in her post -- http://www.cogsci.indiana.edu/farg/h...an/grkphon.htm -- is very useful because you can click on the pronuncations and hear them. Click on all of the letters and you'll find some surprises, such as "Beta" is pronounced "Veta" in Greek and "Mu" and "Nu" are pronounced "Mee" and "Nee."