Ghoti

alliterate:

crakkajamma:

bestofwikipedia:

Ghoti is a word constructed to illustrate the irregularities of written English. It is pronounced “fish”; the gh is pronounced as in “tough”, o as in “women”, and ti as in “nation”. Often attributed to George Bernard Shaw, the actual origin of the word is unknown.

English, hey, English. STOP BEING WEIRD.

This is way up there with “Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo” in both the Things That Blow My Mind and English is Fucking Weird categories.

Whenever I read the explanation for this, I’m always — always — confused for a moment, because wtf “women”?  There’s no ɪ in women, there’s a ʊ.  Which isn’t lolzily pathetic until you realize that I first heard about it in The Big Book of Amazing Facts.  When I was five.  :(

  1. baleen-morning reblogged this from oddmoments
  2. dead-godspeed reblogged this from thisisthewrongpotter and added:
    The English language is ridiculous…. Which is why I don’t get why people in my Spanish class are always like “What? That...
  3. blindinsect reblogged this from pseudocanadian7
  4. pseudocanadian7 reblogged this from oddmoments
  5. oddmoments reblogged this from bestofwikipedia
  6. onascaleofonetoawesome reblogged this from bestofwikipedia
  7. mamafriesmeal reblogged this from crakkajamma and added:
    I second the idea of English cutting that shit right the fuck out.
  8. kisssoff reblogged this from christineren
  9. christineren reblogged this from bestofwikipedia
  10. amandaross reblogged this from bestofwikipedia
  11. ifdyingisyourwayout reblogged this from musicwordscolourslights
  12. musicwordscolourslights reblogged this from bestofwikipedia
  13. ramirukun reblogged this from bestofwikipedia
  14. singofthedamage reblogged this from charmingpplincardigans
  15. uhouse reblogged this from alliterate and added:
    i had the same 30 second dilemma with ‘i’ and ‘women’ as well. i’m going to use this around my mother now when i ask her...
  16. mybrotherspeach reblogged this from alliterate and added:
    I don’t think that any accents are more valid than others! Although I have an English accent and am tempted to be snobby...
  17. alliterate reblogged this from mybrotherspeach and added:
    I pronounce it so the o sounds like the vowel sound in “hook” and the e sounds like the second vowel sound in “roses”...
  18. theresapattern reblogged this from alliterate and added:
    Whenever I read the explanation for this, I’m always — always — confused for a moment, because wtf “women”? There’s no ɪ...
  19. charmingpplincardigans reblogged this from brilligspoons
  20. brilligspoons reblogged this from crakkajamma and added:
    I FUCKING LOVE THIS LANGUAGE WHAT IS EVEN GOING ON HERE
  21. crakkajamma reblogged this from bestofwikipedia and added:
    STOP BEING WEIRD.
  22. hugeinjapan reblogged this from bestofwikipedia and added:
    delightfully absurd.
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