So, is that the craziest title yet on my articles? Well, hang on. It will be made clearer below as we study the English language and its strangeness. It all started with a short article on the pronunciation of a series of four letters and how our language can be easy to spell but hard to pronounce for foreign language learners.
Inglish iz 2 krazy 4 fonix.
Amazingly, we can all read that sentence although not one word is spelled correctly. Do we Americans, and perhaps the Brits, so change pronunciations of simple letters that the correct spelling and pronunciation become a study in confusion. Read the following and realize how many different ways we pronounce the two letters ea.
I knew in my head and my heart that the theater
bureau’s harsh reaction to the great and beautiful
Ocean/Earth Pageant was mean spirited despite
the caveat that their review was changeable.
This wasn’t the part that got me hooked. It was the ways that we can pronounce the four letters “ough”! Depending who you read, there are seven or eight ways that words with those four letters are properly pronounced. I go with eight. Here are such words with distinct and pronounced differences.
Cough off
Rough uff
Dough uu
Through oo
Bought au
Drought ow
Enough uh
Hiccough up
I know that we often spell it hiccup, but the real English spelling is with the ough and so spelled and pronounced in England.
I have learned that these inconsistencies arise as a result of historical sound changes. The English pronunciations of these letters come from German throaty consonant sound from a word like Bach, and brought to England with the Anglo-Saxons in the fifth century. Over the years the English changed pronunciation of many words by dropping the g sound and replacing it with the f. This is evident in words like rough. These subtle changes continued.
Now imagine that you are teaching English in a grade or high school, or even more challenging to a group learning English as a second language. Maybe one way is to merely practice the pronunciation of these tough (pun intended) words rather than explain it. Try this for an inclusive sentence.
“Though I had a rough night because of a coughing fit, I ploughed through a lot of information, and thoroughly thought about my upcoming presentation which I hope will not be for nought.”
Yeah, it comes easier for us older people who lived with the same language for all our lives. I guess we can properly pronounce ought and sought, cough and trough, slough, rough and tough, bought or drought or even nought.
But where the heck did we come up with hiccough? This one is so unusual, I could not come up with a pair.
OK, the answer for the title Ghoti spelling fish.
First letter gh comes from the ough in rough, thus f.
Second letter o comes from women thus the i.
Last letters come from mention or attention thus the sh.
So, the word fish could be spelled quite differently.
Try to teach that to your students. One of my English professors called English spelling as totally evil. Perhaps he had a point.
https://daily-journal.com/opinion/marek-fish-might-be-spelled-ghoti/article_50078c34-d909-11ef-b5f6-d3936c9d3e21.html