What Does (Ph) Mean ...

[Bert45]

... in the transcript of Trump's press conerence?

[kawanabe]

Phunky! ;o)

[chelle7272]

Phonetic
https://www.avvo.com/legal-answers/what-does--ph--mean-next-to-a-name-in-a-hearing-tr-773962.html

[Gromit]

Is it Post Honesty?

[Baldric]

Why the PHeck is this in News?

[Jackdaw33]

Not an abbreviation I've ever come across in UK English. Plenty of 'sics', mind you.

[Jackdaw33]

LOL @ Balders.

[mushroom25]

I can't make any acronym out of PH that might equate to, or approximate "alternative facts". phoney is the nearest I could get.

[Bert45]

'Phonetic' seems a possibility, but not when you hear the speech and read the transcript. I'll have to ask the NYT.

[gingejbee]

...was he making acid comments?

[Ninefingers]

Every speech tends to be a litmus test of what's going on ;)

[Mamyalynne]

You'd need to give some examples of where the notation appears to get a clearer picture - but Chelle's link @ 13.12 seems the most likely.

[jno]

it usually means a reporter is working from audio or video and can't be sure of the word (especially if it's a proper name, for instance) but they've typed it as they heard it. Sometimes it may have the same meaning as "sic" - that is, "this is what he said, I've taken it down, don't blame me if he's used the word wrongly".

[jno]

Mamya, you can see ph's in the transcript here

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/16/us/politics/donald-trump-press-conference-transcript.html?_r=0

[Jackdaw33]

Sic normally comes from written transcripts to indicate an error on the part of the author, not the reporter.

[Mamyalynne]

Ta Jno - confirms it to me at least - a bit overused though.

[Peter Pedant]

notmany ph here


http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/16/click-for-a-full-transcript-of-trumps-first-solo-press-conference.html

[DTCwordfan]

Piled high - deep in the brown stuff?

[Peter Pedant]

i have read one transcript with
and one without
and it seems ph is used when the transcriber is unsure

a lot of them on the electoral votes exchange
and presumably the transcriber does not wish to get drawn up in the accuracy of news and fake news thing

here there are no ph
the transcriber just gives up
"Reporter: Mr. President, you said today that you have biggest electoral margins since Reagan with 350 electoral votes, and, in fact, president Obama got 365 -- [Trump mumbles in response] why should America — [ Trump tries to protest in response] why should America trust you when you accuse the — [ inaudible ]"

[ToraToraTora]

school boy chem, potential of hydrogen.

[Peter Pedant]

no it isnt 3T

//school boy chem, potential of hydrogen.// (ph)

that is pH and is from "potenz H" which I think is swedish for H strength. [ neg log base 10 of hydrogen concentration in moles-li-1]

yeah yeah I know lots and lots opportunity for 3T to quip free style
" neg logs what dey den ?"