Crazy English: ghoti
![How to say ghoti as fish from George Bernard Shaw](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.prismic.io%2Fsketchplanations%2Ff4dbc9b4-2bac-4aa7-9d71-74439a04e6ef_126571242006.jpg%3Fauto%3Dcompress%2Cformat&w=3840&q=75)
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Ghoti is a constructed word intended to illustrate some of the craziness in English punctuation, in that, taking the sounds of its parts from different places, it could be said as fish.
- Said as: fish
- Written as: ghoti
- Derived from: enouGH, wOmen, naTIon
In my book -ough, in particular, is the craziest as in enough, thorough, bough, through, although - all pronounced totally differently.
I’d heard it credited to George Bernard Shaw, but apparently, his biography credits it to an ‘anonymous spelling reformer’.
Related Ideas to Ghoti
Also see:
- Anadiplosis
- Ordering English adjectives
- Ablaut Reduplication
- Homonyms, homographs, homophones and heteronyms
- Pleonasm
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