I just got out of my Fundamentals of Grammar class, in which we discussed how grammar really isn’t being taught in schools. We brought up the fact that these days, young kids aren’t too good at spelling because of their dependency on “text speak” (which I fully intend to blog about later). This led to the concept that English as a language does not spell things very phonetically, despite what it may claim. My professor brought up the old but always great example of:
Ghoti.
She wrote this word on the board and asked us to say it. Only a handful of students knew what the word supposedly was.
Fish.
The “gh” was taken from words like “enough” or "tough," whereas the “o” in the middle was taken from the word “women.” And the ending “ti” was based off of the popular “tio” spelling that somehow makes the “sh” sound ("nation," and "education"). Most of the kids rolled their eyes and groaned, saying that "ghoti" was stupid and far-fetched. It may be, but it definitely proves a point.
Anyway, I thought this was a wicked cool example of how bonkers the English language is.
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