this post was submitted on 12 Oct 2025
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Mildly Interesting
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Alfa?
Really?
Yes, he explained why it's spelled that way in the video. The creators were worried that people unfamiliar with English wouldn't pronounce the "ph" properly.
He also explained why Juliett is spelled with two Ts instead of one.
I think worried is the wrong word.
They studied how people pronounced words and showed that spelling it this way made more people pronounce it as expected.
The origin of "ph" for the "f" sound is that in Classical greek these words were pronounced with an aspirated "ph", which lead to this romanization. Only later they were actually pronounced "f".
So you could say that "ph" to universally communicate "f" is faulty, because it used to be a different sound in the first place.
I just learned a day or two ago that that's the correct way? Because non-native speakers have problems with ph?
I only know Alpha.
Alpha (animal)
Alphabet
Alpha goal (from almost every game about CTF)
Alfalfa
Right, but you speak english. As the video explains, it was spelled βalfaβ so people who canβt speak english donβt pronounce it with a p sound.
I speak English as a second language.
Thank you very much.
But you still speak English
For me in my language it is Alfa (the Greek letter) Alfabet (the alphabet) and Alfa-mannetje (you :P)
Beta spelling