ghoti

[David Bergdahl]

And then there's the hairy joke about the mutt who reacts to the French
poodles with names like FiFi and MiMi by spelling his name Phydeaux...

On 12/21/06, Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: ghoti
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On 12/21/06, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> >   In the one I more or less remember, from an early collection of
> _Ripley's
> > Believe It or Not!_ (ca1960), a fictitious Mr. "Phthyrrhgnolo"
> pronounced his
> > name as "Turner."
> >
> >   "phth" as "phthisic" (I remember I had to look that one up).
> >
> >   "olo" as in "colonel"]
> >
> >   "gn" as in "gnu."
> >
> >   "yrrh" as in "myrrh."
> >
> >   So obvious.
>
> I believe this one usually shows up as "Phtholognyrrh" rather than
> "Phthyrrhgnolo" (as your expansion suggests).
>
> --Ben
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org