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After reading this question just yet, it reminded me of something my English teacher once told me.

What is the proper pronunciation of the following word, and why?

ghoti

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Kevin Cruijssen
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3 Answers3

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The answer is

Fish, because the sound these letters make in other words: 'gh' in "enough", 'o' in "women", 'ti' in "nation"

KoA
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  • That was fast. You probably heard it before? :) I will accept the answer in 12 minutes when I can. – Kevin Cruijssen May 02 '16 at 09:19
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    @KevinCruijssen yup ;) A long time ago, but it stuck in my memory – KoA May 02 '16 at 09:20
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    Also, if one were to google 'ghoti', the answer is pretty apparent ... – Tim Couwelier May 02 '16 at 09:34
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    @TimCouwelier Hmm, you're indeed right. Should have known my English teacher looked it up on the internet himself.. He never was really original or funny (he always laughed at his own jokes while the class didn't understand it halve the time XD). Ghoti simply got stuck in my head and I was reminded by it. And since it wasn't present as a question yet, I decided to post it. – Kevin Cruijssen May 02 '16 at 09:41
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    "Ghoti" is famous enough to have its own Wikipedia page. The page notes that the earliest sighting of this spelling of "fish" is from 1874. :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghoti – MichaelK May 02 '16 at 10:42
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    What in the world lol – Devsman May 02 '16 at 13:27
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    And then there's the respelling of "potato" as "ghoughphtheightteeau"... – f'' May 02 '16 at 18:13
  • In middle school I occasionally used the pseudonym "Physch" because I thought it was a funny way of writing "fish". One of my english teachers thought it was amusing and likened it to the "ghoti" spelling. Which always annoyed me because, though perhaps not obvious at first glance, "physch" could have a case for legitimately being pronounced the same as "fish" while "ghoti" is pure nonsense. – Dave May 02 '16 at 19:49
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The answer is

"goaty", because: "gh" can only make the sound /f/ after the vowel letter "u", "o" can only make the sound /ɪ/ in a stressed syllable in the word "women," and "ti" can only make the sound /ʃ/ in the middle of a word before a vowel letter. See "Hou tu pranownse Inglish"

sumelic
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    The question was for the "proper pronunciation" :) +1 – Jonathan Allan May 02 '16 at 14:10
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    @JonathanAllan: well, "proper pronunciation" was never defined. One person might take it to mean "the intended pronunciation," another person might take it to mean "the pronunciation suggested by the normal rules of English spelling." :) – sumelic May 02 '16 at 14:12
  • In English, there aren't really strict rules about how letters "can" be pronounced. There are general guidelines, but any of those can be overruled by any particular word, especially a fabricated word such as ghoti. – paste May 02 '16 at 17:19
  • @paste: true that there aren't strict rules, but there are tendencies, and they can't be "overuled" too much or else people will start using spelling pronunciations. When someone fabricates a word with an unintuitive or ambiguous spelling, there's no guarantee the original, intended pronunciation will end up being used. Take the case of "GIF." – sumelic May 02 '16 at 19:18
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    @sumelic Thankfully, the original intended pronunciation rarely matters. In fact, in the case you mention, the debate over the pronunciation of GIF has popularized both pronunciations, which means it's more likely that one will know what you mean even if you pronounce it "incorrectly". Your intention will come across, and that's what's more important. – paste May 03 '16 at 00:32
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To be honest, it is more of a brain teaser. The first answer which came to my after-exam-tired mind was:

Goatee

So, peace...

ABcDexter
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