ghoti

[Sally Donlon]

Well, the cheer for the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (ULL, or
Ooh La La) has long been "Geaux Cajuns!"

sally


On Dec 21, 2006, at 3:19 PM, David Bergdahl wrote:

> 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
>>
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