Korean Job Discussion Forums

[sheba]

Does anyone know the rule explaining the difference between the two CH sounds? eg, church, chocolate, chimp - chemistry, christmas, chord.

Cheers

[edwardcatflap]

Those words in the second list come from ancient Greek, the letter 'Chi' 'pronounced in a similar way to our 'K' . The Greek letter was formed a bit like the modern 'X', hence the way people shorten 'Christmas' to 'Xmas' sometimes. Don't really know what else you need to know. Any rules that exist will have their basis in etymology I suppose.

[sheba]

Im looking for something like this.....

If c is followed by an e, i or y, it has an S sound (eg dance, cynical, cinema).

All others make a K sound, except ch.

So im trying to find a rule for the two ways to read CH (chemisry Vs change)

I may have made a mistake in this example but I just wrote it off the top of my head! Its just an example...

[edwardcatflap]

When words are imported from other languages they don't always follow the 'rules' of English phonetics. E.g. 'cello', which comes from Italian so we pronounce it with a 'ch' sound, not an 's' sound. Sometimes the only way to know how to prounounce some words is by knowing the etymology

[CentralCali]

[edwardcatflap]

I don't think it's got anything to do with crosses. The first letter of 'Christ' in ancient Greek was a 'Chi' which looks like an 'X".

The diagonal cross shape would, in any case, be the symbol of St Andrew , who legend says was crucified on one, and is represented in the Scottish flag

[Globutron]

[karoly]

There are actually three 'Ch' sounds.

chop
mach
Chopin

I'm not a linguist, but I would imagine the lack of rules stem from the notion that English is essentially a cross of German and the Romance languages.

[edwardcatflap]

I make it four with 'loch'

[Globutron]

[edwardcatflap]

chef, chauffeur

[Globutron]

All are French words. CH as a SH isn't an English language thing, other than adapting to our own such as chef and the like. So as someone else says it depends on their origins.

[edwardcatflap]

Yes I said it. On this same page. This isn't exactly a long thread. Chef and chauffeur are parts of the English language but since their origins are French they are pronounced the French way. Just as Christmas and chord are pronounced with a k sound as their origin is Ancient Greek. I would agree that Chopin is not a good example, however, as being a proper name it's debatable whether it's actually part of the English language.

[bobranger]

http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/#

Great diagram of the articulatory anatomy.