ecn-ec:mj@pur-ee.UUCP (08/11/83)
#N:ecn-ec:12900010:000:369
ecn-ec!mj Jun 26 13:06:00 1983
My sixth-grade English book said that 'fish' could just
as easily be spelled 'ghoti':
enouGH = 'f'
wOmen = 'i'
moTIon = 'sh'
ghoti = 'fish'
Does anyone else know of similar non-phonetic spellings?
________
Mark A. Johnson Purdue University decvax!pur-ee!mj
(317) 743-2548 rcj@burl.UUCP (08/12/83)
My favorite confusion of this sort came from an old "I Love Lucy" show where Lucy is trying to teach Ricky better English. She is reading to him from a children's book, and runs across a number of words that drive Ricky CRAZY!!! Consider these (pronounce them): bough cough dough rough through No wonder furners who come to this country cain't tail Kansas from Ar-kansas, :-) -- The MAD Programmer -- 919-228-3814 (Cornet 291) alias: Curtis Jackson ...![ floyd sb1 mhuxv ]!burl!rcj
asente@decwrl.UUCP (Paul Asente) (08/14/83)
In regard to "I Love Lucy": There is a "Gough" street in San Francisco. One of our favorite topics of conversation while trying to find a parking spot for the symphony is the pronunciation: is it Gow like bough Goff like cough Go like dough Guff like rough or (my favorite) Goo like through! -paul asente (decvax,ucbvax,allegra)!decwrl!asente
dave@utcsrgv.UUCP (Dave Sherman) (08/14/83)
C'mon, burl!rcj, don't stop there:
bough -auw
cough -off
dough -ouw
rough -uff
through -oo
thought -o
hiccough -up
thorough -schwa (upside-down 'e')
--
{linus,cornell,watmath,ihnp4,floyd,allegra,utzoo,uw-beaver}!utcsrgv!daverlr@pyuxn.UUCP (08/14/83)
And now the final ultimate explanation of why 'ghoti' spells 'fish':
gh - as in 'ghrog' (a green amphibian that lives in ponds and
eats flies)
o - as in 'os' ("It os a very nice day, osn't it?")
ti - as in 'tiut' ("I wish he would tiut up, he talks so much.")
English is a very simple and ordered language once you understand it.