φ and the Coptic letter Ϥ "Fai" and the sound "f"

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Stephen Hughes
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Joined: February 26th, 2013, 7:12 am

φ and the Coptic letter Ϥ "Fai" and the sound "f"

Post by Stephen Hughes »

When the Greek alphabet was used to record the Coptic language, some extra letters were introduced to represent sounds that were not in Greek. One of them was Fai. Ϥ, taken from the Demotic writing of the hieroglyphic character in teh shape of horned viper representing the phonetic value "f", and most used as a suffix pronoun often meaning "him", "he" or "his".

Why do we pronounce φ as "f" in the restored pronunciations?
Γελᾷ δ' ὁ μωρός, κἄν τι μὴ γέλοιον ᾖ
(Menander, Γνῶμαι μονόστιχοι 108)
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