O = short i sound, as in women
TI = sh sound as in nation
The playwright George Bernard Shaw used this to illustrate the "stupidity"
of the standard English pronounciation. He had a 20 year plan in which every
year, cefrtain letters would be eliminated and their sounds replaced by
other letters. None of the 26 letters would be eliminated and none added,
only "swapped" around. For instance, "c" would be eliminated because its
sounds can be replaced by "k" or "s", and it would be reused to represent
the "ch" sound.
I use this illustration when my school classes are "picking on" my ESL
(English as a Second Language) are being picked on for their poor English. I
tell the class that Spanish (most of my ESL students are Mexican) is a
almost entirely pronounced the way it's spelled and that English is a
stupid (and very difficult to learn) language because of examples such as
these.
I really think that Shaw's plan had a lot of merit and wish that it could
be implemented. Think of all the hard drive space we could save if we didn't
need Spell Check - which doesn't work very well anyway, thanx to our
thousands of homonyms. Some of you may have noticed that I usually sign my
messages "thanx" - it's my little way of rebellion.
Hukd on fonix werkd 4 me.
Thanx,
Bill
----- Original Message -----
From: Jay DeLong <thirdwind_at_att.net>
To: <nanfa_at_aquaria.net>
Sent: Thursday, July 06, 2000 11:49 PM
Subject: RE: NANFA-- More trivia (?)
> GHOTI= fish
>
> And yes, I can justify it. But I'll let someone else try :-)
>
> --
> Jay DeLong
> Olympia, WA
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-nanfa_at_aquaria.net On Behalf
> > Of D. Martin Moore
> > Sent: Thursday, July 06, 2000 8:21 PM
> > To: nanfa_at_aquaria.net
> > Subject: NANFA-- More trivia (?)
> >
> >
> > OK, what is the pronunciation of this word: GHOTI
> >
> > Hint: It sounds like a common English word
> > Hint: It is related to this email list
> >
> > Got it? Can you justify your answer?
>
>
>
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/----------------------------------------------------------------------------- /"Unless stated otherwise, comments made on this list do not necessarily / reflect the beliefs or goals of the North American Native Fishes / Association" / This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes Association / nanfa_at_aquaria.net. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get help, send the word / subscribe, unsubscribe, or help in the body (not subject) of an email to / nanfa-request_at_aquaria.net. For a digest version, send the command to / nanfa-digest-request_at_aquaria.net instead. / For more information about NANFA, visit our web page, http://www.nanfa.org