ghoti = fish

[Paul Johnston]

It's a valid BE pronunciation in most dialects.  I remember getting
into debates with my Scottish-born ex-wife as to whether "French"
had /ntS/ or /nS/ at the end.  With me, it was the first one; with
her, the second.

Yours,
Paul Johnston
On Apr 22, 2008, at 6:26 PM, David Borowitz wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       David Borowitz <borowitz at STANFORD.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: ghoti = fish
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---------
>
> On Tue, Apr 22, 2008 at 3:11 PM, Matthew Gordon
> <gordonmj at missouri.edu>
> wrote:
>
>> ti is sh, as in mention, attention, &c.
>
>
> A bit off-topic, but the 'ti' in both of those is pretty clearly
> [tS] for me
> and not [S]. Wikipedia gives 'ti' as in 'nation', which is better
> for me. My
> question is, do we think 'mention' with [S] might be a mistake on
> the part
> of the author, or was that a valid BE pronunciation 100-150 years
> ago? (Or
> is it a valid BE pronunciation today?)
>
> --
> It is better to be quotable than to be honest.
> -Tom Stoppard
>
> Borowitz
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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