Ghoti is a comic alternative spelling of the English word fish , which demonstrates the inconsistency of English spelling .
Content
Interpretation
This word, as conceived by the author, should be pronounced in the same way as fish ([ˈfɪʃ]), including the following sounds:
- gh pronounced [ f ] as in the word tough (hard) [ t ʌ f ];
- o pronounced [ ɪ ] as in women (women) [ ˈ w ɪ m ɪ n ]; and
- ti pronounced [ ʃ ] as in nation [ˈneɪʃən] .
However, linguists indicate that with such a sequence of letters the word will be pronounced differently - “goaty” ['gəutɪ]. For example, the letters “gh” cannot be pronounced as / f / at the beginning of a word, and the letters “ti” cannot be pronounced as / ʃ / at the end of a word.
History
The word ghoti , as the American linguist Ben Zimmer established, first appears in the correspondence published in 1874 by the writer Lee Hunt and his publisher Charles Ollier : in a letter dated 1855, Ollier reports this word as a comic invention of his 30-year-old son William [1] . As Zimmer notes, in the middle of the 19th century such artificial examples, bringing to the point of absurdity the historically conditioned spelling features of the English language, were in demand and popular: in particular, A.J. Ellis , arguing in favor of a decisive spelling reform, in 1845 proposed words servant (servant) possible spelling psourrphuakntw [2] .
Ghoti is often cited by proponents of English spelling reform and is attributed to George Bernard Shaw [3] , who also supported her. However, this word does not appear in Shaw’s works [1] , and one of his biographies ascribes authorship of ghoti to an anonymous spelling reformer [4] . There are other similar words showing the complexity and inconsistency of English spelling, but it is ghoti who is most widely known. .
See also
- English phonology
- Alphabet Shows
- - a poem that demonstrates the inconsistency of English spelling and pronunciation
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 Benjamin Zimmer. “Ghoti” before Shaw // Language Log: Linguistic Data Consortium Blog, University of Pennsylvania , 04/23/2008. (eng.)
- ↑ Ellis, Alexander John. A plea for phonotypy and phonography: or, Speech-printing and speech-writing - Bath: Isaac Pitman, 1845. - P. 16.
- ↑ Holroyd, Michael, Bernard Shaw: Volume III: 1918-1950: The Lure of Fantasy , Random House, 1994, ISBN 0-517-13035-1
- ↑ See Jim Scobbie's article at alt-usage-english.org Archived February 25, 2001. , citing Holroyd, page 501
Links
- How to pronounce ghoti
- Hou tu pranownse Inglish (essay on phonetics and spelling, which mentions "ghoti").
- Jim Scobby "What is ghoti?"