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<font size=3>On a slightly different tack, up the Hudson, I had just the
previous moment been reading a footnote by Carl Bridenbaugh, the editor
of "Gentleman's Progress: The Itinerarium of Dr. Alexander Hamilton,
1744":<br><br>
"Bruce relates that there were forty different ways of spelling
Poughkeepsie, and that each year the Post Office had a new
one."<br><br>
[Bruce is Wallace Bruce, "The Hudson River by Daylight,
1873.]<br><br>
Joel<br><br>
At 12/21/2006 05:09 PM, you wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">In sheer frustration over the
people who can't spell my last name<br>
(Need), I once figured out that there were 672 ways to spell<br>
(according to spelling rules of English). With one cheat, my
favorite<br>
is <Gneighbde>: gn-gnu, eigh-Leigh, bd (the cheat, since I believe
it<br>
happens in one word, word initially)-bdellium, silent e. Of course,<br>
there are three actual words in all of that!<br><br>
Barbara<br><br>
Barbara Need<br>
UChicago<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite=""> In the one I more or less
remember, from an early collection of<br>
_Ripley's Believe It or Not!_ (ca1960), a fictitious Mr.<br>
"Phthyrrhgnolo" pronounced his name as
"Turner."<br><br>
"phth" as "phthisic" (I remember I had to look
that one up).<br><br>
"olo" as in "colonel"]<br><br>
"gn" as in "gnu."<br><br>
"yrrh" as in "myrrh."<br><br>
So obvious.<br><br>
JL<br><br>
Stephen Goranson <goranson@DUKE.EDU> wrote:<br>
---------------------- Information from the mail header<br>
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Sender: American Dialect Society<br>
Poster: Stephen Goranson<br>
Subject: Re: ghoti<br>
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<br>
Quoting "James A. Landau" :<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite=""> I once saw a similar gag
to "ghoti", which I cannot recall except<br>
that it had three phonemes, one of which was /t/ spelled
"phth" as in<br>
"phthisic". Does anyone know it?</blockquote><br>
Perhaps:<br>
gheauphtheightough pronounced potato<br>
gh as in hiccough<br>
eau as in beau<br>
phth as in phthisis<br>
eight as in eight<br>
ough as in though<br><br>
(along with ghoti/fish and one other) in The English Journal Mar. 1945
p.152<br><br>
SG<br><br>
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