Where on earth does the Ph in McPhee (or Mac Phee) come from? There is a McFee spelling, which seems more logical.
The Ph sound came from the Greek letter Phi, which the Romans translated into the F sound, and is prevalent in words originating from Greek. But when it comes to Gaelic names it just doesn't make sense to use the Ph spelling.
It's not only used in McPhee - there are many instances of the Ph spelling being used in Gaelic. Perhaps some of my readers can explain?
1 comment:
Had to Google this as I have very limited knowledge of Gaelic but it is as I suspected pre-Googling: McFee/McPhee is the Anglicised version of the name.
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