ghoti = fish

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Thu May 1 14:06:38 UTC 2008


No wonder that you divorced!

-Wilson

On Tue, Apr 22, 2008 at 11:53 PM, Paul Johnston <paul.johnston at wmich.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>  Poster:       Paul Johnston <paul.johnston at WMICH.EDU>
>  Subject:      Re: ghoti = fish
>  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>  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
>  >
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>
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>
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--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
 -Sam'l Clemens

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