Ghoti
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Ghoti is a creative English respelling of the word ''
fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...
'', used to illustrate how confusing spelling and pronunciation in the English language can be.


Explanation

The word is intended to be pronounced in the same way as ''fish'' (), using these sounds: * ''gh'', pronounced as in ''enough'' or ''tough'' ; * ''o'', pronounced as in ''women'' ; * ''ti'', pronounced as in ''nation'' or ''motion'' . The key to the phenomenon is that the pronunciations of the constructed word's three parts are inconsistent with how they would ordinarily be pronounced in those placements. To illustrate: ''gh'' can only resemble ''f'' when following the letters ''ou'' or ''au'' at the end of certain
morpheme A morpheme is any of the smallest meaningful constituents within a linguistic expression and particularly within a word. Many words are themselves standalone morphemes, while other words contain multiple morphemes; in linguistic terminology, this ...
s ("tough", "cough", "laugh"), while ''ti'' would only resemble ''sh'' when followed by a vowel sound. The expected pronunciation in English would sound like "
goatee A goatee is a style of facial hair incorporating hair on the chin entirely. The exact nature of the style has varied according to time and culture. Description Until the late 20th century, the term ''goatee'' was used to refer solely to a bear ...
" , not "fish". Both of the digraphs in the spelling – ''gh'' and ''ti'' – are examples of consonant shifts, the gradual transformation of a consonant in a particular spoken context while retaining its identity in writing. Specifically, "nation" reflects the softening of ''t'' before ''io'' in late Latin and early French, while "enough" reflects the softening of a terminal ''g'' in
West Germanic languages The West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three branches of the Germanic languages, Germanic family of languages (the others being the North Germanic languages, North Germanic and the extinct East Germanic languages, East Germ ...
. In contrast,
North Germanic languages The North Germanic languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages—a sub-family of the Indo-European languages—along with the West Germanic languages and the extinct East Germanic languages. The language group is also r ...
such as Danish and Swedish retain a harder pronunciation in their corresponding words (''nok'' and ''nog'').


History

The first confirmed use of ''ghoti'' is in a letter dated 11 December 1855 from
Charles Ollier Charles Ollier (1788–1859) was an English publisher and author, associated with the works of Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats. Early life From a Huguenot background, Ollier began life in the banking-house of Messrs. Coutts. About 1816 he was ...
to
Leigh Hunt James Henry Leigh Hunt (19 October 178428 August 1859), best known as Leigh Hunt, was an English critic, essayist and poet. Hunt co-founded '' The Examiner'', a leading intellectual journal expounding radical principles. He was the centre ...
. On the third page of the letter, Ollier explains that his son William, who was 31, had "hit upon a new method of spelling Fish." Ollier then demonstrates the rationale, "So that ''ghoti'' is ''fish''." Ollier's work was contemporaneous with that of spelling reformer Alexander J. Ellis, whose ''Plea for Phonotypy and Phonography'' contained several similar examples. An early known published reference is an October 1874 article by S. R. Townshend Mayer in '' St. James's Magazine'', which cites the letter. Another relatively early appearance of ''ghoti'' was in a 1937 newspaper article, and the term is alluded to in the 1939
James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...
experimental work of fiction ''
Finnegans Wake ''Finnegans Wake'' is a novel by Irish literature, Irish writer James Joyce. It was published in instalments starting in 1924, under the title "fragments from ''Work in Progress''". The final title was only revealed when the book was publishe ...
''. ''Ghoti'' is often cited to support English spelling reform, and is often attributed to
George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 188 ...
, a supporter of this cause. However, the word does not appear in Shaw's writings, and a biography of Shaw attributes it instead to an anonymous spelling reformer. Similar constructed words exist that demonstrate English
idiosyncrasies An idiosyncrasy is a unique feature of something. The term is often used to express peculiarity. Etymology The term "idiosyncrasy" originates from Greek ', "a peculiar temperament, habit of body" (from ', "one's own", ', "with" and ', "blend ...
, but ''ghoti'' is one of the most widely recognized.


Notable usage

*In ''
Finnegans Wake ''Finnegans Wake'' is a novel by Irish literature, Irish writer James Joyce. It was published in instalments starting in 1924, under the title "fragments from ''Work in Progress''". The final title was only revealed when the book was publishe ...
'' (published in 1939),
James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...
alludes to ''ghoti'': "Gee each owe tea eye smells fish." ("G-H-O-T-I spells 'fish'.") (p. 299). On p. 51, ''that fishabed ghoatstory'' may also allude to ''ghoti''. *In the
artistic language An artistic language, or artlang, is a constructed language designed for aesthetic and phonetic pleasure. Constructed languages can be artistic to the extent that artists use it as a source of creativity in art, poetry, calligraphy or as a metapho ...
Klingon The Klingons ( ; Klingon language, Klingon: ''tlhIngan'' ) are a humanoid species of aliens in the science fiction franchise ''Star Trek''. Developed by screenwriter Gene L. Coon in 1967 for the Star Trek: The Original Series, original ''Star T ...
, is the proper word for "fish". *In "An Egg Grows in Gotham", a 1966 episode of the television series ''
Batman Batman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. Batman was created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on M ...
'', the villain
Egghead In U.S. English slang, egghead is an epithet used to refer to intellectuals or people considered out-of-touch with ordinary people and lacking in realism, common sense, sexual interests, etc. on account of their intellectual interests. A similar ...
uses "Ghoti Oeufs" as the name for his caviar business, and Batman explains the reference to Robin. * Ghoti Hook is a 1990s Christian punk band. *''Ghoti'' has been used to test
speech synthesizer Speech synthesis is the artificial production of human speech. A computer system used for this purpose is called a speech synthesizer, and can be implemented in software or Computer hardware, hardware products. A text-to-speech (TTS) system conv ...
s. The ''Speech!''
allophone In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is one of multiple possible spoken soundsor '' phones''used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, the voiceless plos ...
-based speech synthesizer software for the
BBC Micro The BBC Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, is a family of microcomputers developed and manufactured by Acorn Computers in the early 1980s as part of the BBC's Computer Literacy Project. Launched in December 1981, it was showcased across severa ...
was tweaked to pronounce ''ghoti'' as ''fish''. Examination of the code reveals the string GHOTI used to identify the special case. *In the
Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game The ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' Trading Card Game is a collectible card game developed and published by Konami, based on the manga series '' Yu-Gi-Oh!'' created by Kazuki Takahashi. The card game is based on the fictional game of ''Duel Monsters'' (origi ...
, there is a series of Fish-Type cards called "Ghoti". *The second track of
Lupe Fiasco Wasalu Muhammad Jaco (born February 16, 1982), better known by his stage name Lupe Fiasco ( ), is an American rapper, record producer and Music education, music educator. Born and raised in Chicago, he gained mainstream recognition for his gue ...
's 2022 album '' Drill Music in Zion'' is titled "Ghoti". *
Vocaloid is a singing Speech synthesis, voice synthesizer software product. Its signal processing part was developed through a joint research project between Yamaha Corporation and the Music Technology Group at Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona. The s ...
producer NILFRUITS uses the line "ghoti, ghoti" in the transcript accompanying the sung lyrics of "fish, fish" in his 2018 song ''Hungry Nicole''. See transcript.


See also

*
English-language spelling reform For centuries, there have been movements to reform the spelling of the English language. Such spelling reform seeks to change English orthography so that it is more consistent, matches pronunciation better, and follows the alphabetic principle. ...
*
English orthography English orthography comprises the set of rules used when writing the English language, allowing readers and writers to associate written graphemes with the sounds of spoken English, as well as other features of the language. English's orthograp ...
*
English phonology English phonology is the system of speech sounds used in spoken English. Like many other languages, English has wide variation in pronunciation, both historically and from dialect to dialect. In general, however, the regional dialects of Eng ...
* " The Chaos", a poem which demonstrates the irregularity of English orthography


References

{{Reflist


External links


How to pronounce "ghoti"


an essay on grapheme-to-phoneme rules that discusses "ghoti"

English words English orthography