Ghoti = fish
laugh = f
women = i
fiction = sh
How is ANYONE supposed to figure this stuff out!?!
English is a hard language to learn! It doesn't make a whole lot of sense, really, when you pick it apart.
I've been speaking it, reading it and mangling it for my entire life. And it shows! I've always sufferd from 'bad' spelling.
But I kwestcheeon whethur my spelling is baad or just individualistik.
Wind wind wound wound pear pair pare tear tear tare were where wear read read
fawggy day
i before e except after c...and except in neighbour and weigh.
That's just great. The logic astounds.
Who made up these rules, anyway?
I read somewhere (perhaps Bill Bryson's "Mother Tongue") that many of the spelling decisions (desishuns) we make these days were merely put in place by some guy who preferred words to look a certain way (weigh, whey).
Take fulfill, for instance.
It's not FULLFILL, the second 'L' has been dropped. Why? 'Cus some guy deesided it luked better that way.
I give up.
If it whernt four spell chek, it's possibell that my posts wood be unreedible.
Ore allmost.
Becuz alltho thee spelling apeers hard on thee aye, it m(aches) cents.
We have so many rules and exceptions to the rooelles that English as it stands should not be the most spoken langwage in the world, it should be the leest.
Japanese has no exepshuns.
Maybee wee shud lern it, insted.
Arigato for yore thyme.
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26 comments:
But all those rules and exceptions make it a flexible language; few other languages adopt words so easily. We take for granted that ketchup, arithmatic, and tundra are all English words (when they are, in actuality, Chinese, Greek and Saami) .
Other languages resist new words (take, for example, 'le weekend' in French, or 'football' in Russian) but English gobbles up words without a second look. Those words which contain exceptions to the rules are often words from other tongues -- so yes, English is bloody difficult to learn, but it's resilient, and playful, and full of quirks that make it utterly charming. :)
And, hey, those aren't spelling mistakes. Those are the creative manifestations which illustrate the evolution of a language.
Great post and comment.
Very thawt pruhvohking.
You and Kimber clearly had a life altering experience in an English class somewhere along the way....
I wonder how I survived before spell checkers? Now I remember: I have a huge dictionary on my desk rather than a computer.
What a fantastical post. Its so cool, its red hot. Enjoyed this very much.
I am loving the post!! Mad props yo!
Scott
Actually the 'ghoti' thing was created by Mark Twain. A good piece, dear friend. I love this stuff. Have you read Bryson's The English Language? You'd love it.
Ian
Excellent and humorous post Tai! Thoroughly enjoyed this.
LOL Ohh I feel this way EVERY day as I try to teach my kiddo to read and write.
Help;p
english is for loserz.
2 fune ;)
So funny and TRUE! As a part-time reading tutor, I find myself unable to answer the whys, too! And believe me, the kids ask! (Then they tell me that reading is stupid)
But Gurl, I dont think yer spellin iz bad. Yer just kreative and imajinativ. ;)
The Chinese got nothing on you babe. I work with two of them every day (not dissing the chinese here, just saying, when working with people who's first language is not english...) Sherry have big headache at end of day.
kewl - eye think that U have it nayeld on the hed!!!! :P
Christians teen use Ghoti a lot (fish being a Christian symbol). Great post and Kimber ought to use her comment on her own blog as a post!
I still don't know where 'ghoti' came from. I usually assume bad spelling is the result of laziness. Except for typing mistakes. Those are because I have dyslexic fingers.
fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too. Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.
i cdnuolt blveiee taht I clu od aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be
in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!
Hah!
Josie
English is a VERY difficult language. Maybe that's why we that speak it feel so special!
Now it's all making me laugh!
Great post! English is a fascinating language. But I grew up with it so it's not so hard to work with from my perspective. :)
what a wonderful piece, and I would disagree with Ian on the orgins of the ghoti word play. It is attributed to Shaw, but it probably was not originally written by him. Fun stuff, nonetheless.
I prefer the wordplay in the spelling of 'Potato':
If gh is pronounced /p/ in Hiccough...
If ough is pronounced /o/ in Dough...
If phth is pronounced /t/ in Phthisis...
If eigh is pronounced /a/ in Neighbour...
If tte is pronounced /t/ in Gazette...
If eau is pronounced /o/ in Plateau...
...then it should be possible to spell potato as ghoughphtheightteeau.
But your point is well-made.
i before e except after c...and except in neighbour and weigh
... and weird and about a million other xcepxhuns...
But then, it's nowhere near as complicated as French is, so that's a point in its favour!
My wife's native language is Russian; she says English is hard to learn, too. And she is a terrible speller in English. I thought it was just English being hard, but her Russian friends say she can't spell in Russian, either!
i absolutely adored "Mother Tongue." i must have read it a dozen times.
Good stuff. It reminds me of my New Yorker friend who has a "blawg."
-- david
domo. Excellent post.
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