"φιλοσοφία"

[otsogutxi]

I knew this would be in the first skill of the Greek course!

[Theo_Matrakas]

Philosophy is a key-word in Greek! We have created an entire Philosophy skill at the end of the tree

[Samiwise]

Great!

Socrates would be proud of you. :)

[Acebushmaster42]

cool i love philosophy

[MarkBennett6]

"love of knowledge" is what we're all about here.

[TiredSounds]

Alternatively "love of wisdom".

"τούτου μὲν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐγὼ σοφώτερός εἰμι· κινδυνεύει μὲν γὰρ ἡμῶν οὐδέτερος οὐδὲν καλὸν κἀγαθὸν εἰδέναι, ἀλλ᾽ οὗτος μὲν οἴεταί τι εἰδέναι οὐκ εἰδώς, ἐγὼ δέ, ὥσπερ οὖν οὐκ οἶδα, οὐδὲ οἴομαι· ἔοικα γοῦν τούτου γε σμικρῷ τινι αὐτῷ τούτῳ σοφώτερος εἶναι, ὅτι ἃ μὴ οἶδα οὐδὲ οἴομαι εἰδέναι.

I am wiser than this man, for neither of us appears to know anything great and good; but he fancies he knows something, although he knows nothing; whereas I, as I do not know anything, so I do not fancy I do. In this trifling particular, then, I appear to be wiser than he, because I do not fancy I know what I do not know."

[J.C.M.H.]

This word sounds exactly like European Spanish filosofía. Obviously, the spanish word derives from Greek, but in other languages (Portuguese, Catalan, Italian) the pronunciation is somewhat different.

[ConchiCastillo]

That's right! The Greek S is pronounced exactly as the Iberian Spanish S (in most regions of Spain, that is), which is something that struck me when I first heard Greek. Incidentally, the Dutch S is pronounced the same way, i.e. slightly palatalised or closer to the English SH sound.

[jgierbo2]

Yeah phonetically there are many similarities between Castilian Spanish and Greek.

[BasicallySilver]

I'm assuming the Spanish speakers (or just anyone who speaks a Romance language) would have no problem learning and pronoucing Greek words

[J.C.M.H.]

Personally, I love the Greek pronunciation. Greek, the same than Spanish, emphasizes more the vowels; English emphasizes more the consonants.

[mlw_1550]

You are right :)

[Berto29441]

In I. the stress only differs
(filosofìa)

[Hegelacan]

Hey guys! Does anyone know, when to say "sh" when writing σ? Is there any rule for it?

[MarksAaron]

It sounds to me like that is just the natural pronunciation of 's' in Greek - similar to 's' in central/northern Spain, it has a bit of a 'curl' to it.

[Talos_the_Cat]

It's exactly that!

[MaltaGoya]

It's the voiceless alveolar sibilant s like in the English "sin". It has a "hissing" quality to it.

[tu.8zPhLD72zzoZN]

Τhere might be an error in the pronunciation of this word. Ι tried to get another pronunciation on Forvo, but it was even worse as they don't have a Greek person pronouncing it. I hope a Greek person will go to Forvo and add this for us.

[Snommelp]

Moments like this remind me of my frustration, as a native English-speaker, of using "ph" for an F sound. Especially with a Greek root like this where it's a single letter making the sound.

[DragonPolyglot]

Strangest part is that "ph" is known sometimes as "Greek F" in English... It makes sense that Spanish speakers call the letter Y a "Greek I", but why is the English "ph" called a "Greek F"? It seems a little random to me.

[MarksAaron]

In Ancient Greek, the letter <φ> was pronounced as an aspirated 'p' (in phonetic notation [pʰ]), like the 'p' at the beginning of the English words 'page', 'pot', 'pole', etc. Greek words with this sound that were borrowed into Latin ended up being spelled <ph> in the Roman alphabet, in order to accurately reflect their pronunciation. However, over time, in both Greek and in Latin/the Romance languages/English, the pronunciation of <φ>/<ph> changed to the sound [f]. Most European languages changed the spelling accordingly (e.g. Spanish "filosofía"), but in languages like English, French, and German the spelling was never changed to match the change in pronunciation, hence the English, French and German use of <ph> to represent the sound [f] in words of Greek origin, such as "philosophy" or "phonetic".

[DragonPolyglot]

Ah, that makes sense. I didn't study Ancient Greek in depth, but even then the way in which the letters were taught to me was very faulty. Thanks for the explanation.

[MarksAaron]

My pleasure! :)

[Berto29441]

Thanks a lot. Stranger appears to me the "b" pronounced "v": so all the world says "alphaBet" and in Grece they say "alphaVIt"!

[Snommelp]

Exactly! And like, if it was a Hebrew root, I could understand, because פ can be a hard p or a soft f, so spelling it as a modified p would make sense. But in Greek those are two different letters, and English also has two different letters for those sounds.

[tu.8zPhLD72zzoZN]

"ph" is a different sound from "p" which is closer to "f". Technically, the IPA symbol φ is formed with two lips while the regular f is formed with the bottom lip and the upper teeth. http://www.internationalphoneticalphabet.org/ipa-sounds/ipa-chart-with-sounds/
I watched a baby learn how to say this when the baby still had no teeth. She will be ready to blow out her candle when she turns one. I thought she was pretty clever, because you have to narrow this space you are blowing through quite a bit to get this sound - much narrower than whistling and way less round, or rather flatter. You can definitely use the regular f.

[Snommelp]

...I mean, I already knew that ph was a different sound from p, that was kind of what got this whole discussion started :-P

That information about φ in the IPA is fascinating, though, so thank you!

[rolandcassar]

what is the gender of this word?

[MarkBennett6]

feminine: η φιλοσοφία

[akshan]

ahaha, it was expected)))

[Kuo_Lucy]

first Greek word that I don't need to peek with my mouse before typing the translation. so happy.

[VagueSilhouette]

My reason for learning Greek.

[JackDoxey1]

Same here!

[Patrick.-]

Cogito ergo sum

[Fabiocosentino51]

Almost the same pronounce in portuguese. 'Filosofia'

[Patrick.-]

That's cause the word Filosofia, descends from the Greek word φιλοσοφία, the Romans conquered Greece and adapted that word to their language, and when they traveled to Spain,Portugal,UK,Germany and many other countries, So that's why some words sound the same, cause they have their roots from GREECE.

[JMEND1]

I will remember this word. FOR SOCRATES

[BasicallySilver]

Of course this would be here, hueh

[JayMilkshake]

Wisest is he who knows he does not know

[Zesul]

I hear σ being pronounced [ɕ] in this word. Perhaps [s] and [ɕ] are allophones in Greek? And if they are, is there a distinct and desirable pattern of their usage or is it okay to avoid [ɕ] and always go with [s]?

[Berto29441]

Tiping errors (philosiphy) are non recognized....

[Bernadette290195]

I cannot write in greek because my type writer is enable to do! sorry, how can i do?
I can't progress ! i am stopped always! maybe it would be better to stop learning!

[WillRossma1]

I had to learn this word when I was inducted into my Phi Kappa Phi honor society

[HenriqueSo280211]

Φιλοσοφία

[Vacadechocolate]

This made me so happy...

[NettFitz]

I'm coming to this course having already studied Ancient Greek, so I learned φιλοσοφια as 'wisdom', is that still a valid translation or does modern Greek use a different word?

[G.Georgopoulos]

"Φιλοσοφία" has always meant "philosophy". "Σοφία" is the word for "wisdom", so, as stated above, "φιλοσοφία"=love of wisdom.

[NettFitz]

Ah, right, my mistake. I was thinking of σοφια and conflated the two. Thanks!