Followup: Clearing out /usr/share/emacs and /usr/share/emacs21 and then reinstalling dictionaries-common and then emacs solved the problem for me.
Seems some stale version of some package that php-mode depended on was interfering. HTH -- cannot install php-mode vor emacs on ubuntu dapper beta https://launchpad.net/bugs/42897 -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
