ghoti = fish

[david donnell]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghoti

-----Original Message-----
>From: "Baker, John" <JMB at STRADLEY.COM>
>Sent: Apr 22, 2008 5:36 PM
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: Re: ghoti = fish
>
>---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       "Baker, John" <JMB at STRADLEY.COM>
>Subject:      Re: ghoti = fish
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>        That sounds really early, conceivably even the origin.  Can you
>share the whole thing?
>
>
>John Baker
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
>Of Matthew Gordon
>Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2008 5:11 PM
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: ghoti = fish
>
>I don't keep up with the antedating sport that many on this list
>participate in, so, please forgive me if this is not news. I checked the
>ADS-L archives about the "joke" of respelling 'fish' as <ghoti> and
>found posts tracing this back to the 1930s or so. It is popularly
>attributed to G. B. Shaw but the consensus seems to be that he didn't
>come up with it on his own.
>
>Anyway my university has a trial subscription to the British Periodicals
>database and for fun I searched on 'ghoti.' I came up with an article
>from an 1874 issue of St. James Magazine that recounts the story of
>ghoti. The quote begins "My son William has hit upon a new method of
>spelling Fish. As
>thus: - G.h.o.t.i., Ghoti, fish...." and continues on to explain the
>orthographic connections.
>
>I'm happy to provide further details if anyone is interested.
>
>-Matt Gordon
>
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