Ghoti
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''Ghoti'' is a creative respelling of the word ''
fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...
'', used to illustrate irregularities in
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
spelling and pronunciation.


Explanation

The word is intended to be pronounced in the same way (), 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 the smallest meaningful Constituent (linguistics), constituent of a linguistic expression. The field of linguistics, linguistic study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology (linguistics), morphology. In English, morphemes are ...
s ("tough", "cough", "laugh"), while ''ti'' would only resemble ''sh'' when followed by a vowel sound ("martian", "patient", "spatial"). The expected pronunciation in English would sound like "goaty" , not "fish".


History

In 1815, there were several examples of absurd spellings given in a book by Alexander J. Ellis, ''A Plea for Phonotypy and Phonography'', which advocated spelling reform. However, ''ghoti'' was not among the examples, which were all relatively lengthy and thus harder to remember. 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 centr ...
. On the third page of the letter, Ollier explains, "My son William has hit upon a new method of spelling Fish." Ollier then demonstrates the rationale, "So that ''ghoti'' is ''fish''." The letter credits ''ghoti'' to William Ollier Jr., born 1824. 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 (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 influential and important writers of ...
milestone experimental work of fiction ''
Finnegans Wake ''Finnegans Wake'' is a novel by Irish literature, Irish writer James Joyce. It is well known for its experimental style and reputation as one of the most difficult works of fiction in the Western canon. It has been called "a work of fiction whi ...
''. ''Ghoti'' is often cited to support
English spelling reform For centuries, there have been movements to reform the spelling of the English language. It seeks to change English orthography so that it is more consistent, matches pronunciation better, and follows the alphabetic principle. Common motives for ...
, and is often attributed to
George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...
, 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 an unusual feature of a person (though there are also other uses, see below). It can also mean an odd habit. The term is often used to express eccentricity or peculiarity. A synonym may be "quirk". Etymology The term "idiosyncr ...
, 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 is well known for its experimental style and reputation as one of the most difficult works of fiction in the Western canon. It has been called "a work of fiction whi ...
'' (published in 1939),
James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius 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 influential and important writers of ...
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. Language can be artistic to the extent that artists use it as a source of creativity in art, poetry, calligraphy or as a metaphor to address ...
Klingon The Klingons ( ; Klingon: ''tlhIngan'' ) are a fictional species in the science fiction franchise ''Star Trek''. Developed by screenwriter Gene L. Coon in 1967 for the original ''Star Trek'' (''TOS'') series, Klingons were swarthy humanoids c ...
, is the proper word for "fish". *In "An Egg Grows in Gotham", a 1966 episode of the television series ''
Batman Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on ...
'', the villain
Egghead In the 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. It wa ...
uses "Ghoti Oeufs" as the name for his caviar business, and Batman explains the reference to Robin. *
Ghoti Hook Ghoti Hook ( ) was an American punk band from Fairfax, Virginia. The band formed in 1991, signed to Tooth & Nail Records in 1996, and disbanded in 2002. History Joel Bell, Adam Neubauer, and Justin Levy formed the group in 1991. Conrad Tolosa ...
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 conve ...
s. The ''Speech!''
allophone In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is a set of multiple possible spoken soundsor ''phones''or signs used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, (as in ''s ...
-based speech synthesizer software for the
BBC Micro The British Broadcasting Corporation Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, is a series of microcomputers and associated peripherals designed and built by Acorn Computers in the 1980s for the BBC Computer Literacy Project. Designed with an emphas ...
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. It is based on the fictional game of ''Duel Monsters'' created by manga artist Kazuki Takahashi, which appears in portions of the manga fr ...
, 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, singer, record producer, and entrepreneur. He rose to fame in 2006 following the success of his debut album, ''Lupe Fiasco's ...
's 2022 album, ''
Drill Music in Zion ''Drill Music in Zion'' is the eighth studio album by American hip hop recording artist Lupe Fiasco, released on June 24, 2022, through 1st & 15th and Thirty Tigers. The album was preceded by two singles, "Autoboto" and "Drill Music in Zion". Ba ...
'', is titled "Ghoti".


See also

*
English-language spelling reform For centuries, there have been movements to reform the spelling of the English language. It seeks to change English orthography so that it is more consistent, matches pronunciation better, and follows the alphabetic principle. Common motives for ...
*
English orthography English orthography is the writing system used to represent spoken English, allowing readers to connect the graphemes to sound and to meaning. It includes English's norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalisation, word breaks, emphasis, and p ...
*
English phonology Like many other languages, English has wide variation in pronunciation, both historically and from dialect to dialect. In general, however, the regional dialects of English share a largely similar (but not identical) phonological system. Among ...
* "
The Chaos ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...
", 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