Best Answer - Chosen By Voters
Yes, English spelling can be an adventure, and I enjoy Shaw's joke, though, incidentally, he probably did not originate it
http://alt-usage-english.org/excerpts/fx...
1) "gh" cannot make the "f" sound at the BEGINNING of a word.. only after "ou" (The "f" is a result of a cluster of sound changes in late Middle English/early Modern English; mainly the "Great Vowel Shift" which contributed to all those troublesome "ough" words)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/phonologica...
http://www.alphadictionary.com/articles/...
2) "o" [or other vowels] shifting to an i/e sound in a Germanic language is the result of "i-umlaut", that is, it is caused by adding a suffix with an i/e vowel. You don't have one here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/germanic_um...
3) "ti" can only become a "sh"-sound when it is a transition between syllables (so there must be another vowel after the i), not at the end of a word
For all its woes, English spelling DOES have rules and if you acutally follow those rules, the ONLY possible pronunciation for "ghoti" would be like "goatee"
http://www.zompist.com/spell.html...
On the other hand, if we allow Shaw's approach, there is another answer to the question "how is 'ghoti' prounced?" which is
"..." (that is, silence! it cannot be pronounced at all!), thus:
"gh" as in night
"o" as in people
t" as in ballet
"i" as in business
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ghoti...
OR these letters could be combined to spell "HUGE":
"h" having its usual value, [h];
"g" making [j], the sound of "y" in yes, after the *following* consonant as in
"lasagne";
"o" = [u] as in "move",
"t" = [d] as in "Taoism", and
"i" = [Z] as in one pronunciation of "soldier".
http://alt-usage-english.org/excerpts/fx...