Fun Stuff > CHATTER
English is weird
Sorflakne:
Some try to use ghoti as an example of how weird the rules of English spelling are. And while the rules mentioned for the parts of the word are all true, they are not true for how the word is constructed. No English word that starts with gh has the gh make the 'f' sound, nor does a word ending in ti make the 'sh' sound.
--- Quote ---Linguists have pointed out that the location of the letters in the constructed word is inconsistent with how those letters would be pronounced in those placements, and that the expected pronunciation in English would be "goaty". For instance, the letters "gh" cannot be pronounced /f/ at the beginning of a syllable, and the letters "ti" cannot be pronounced /ʃ/ at the end of a syllable.
--- End quote ---
Rules, people. They exist for a reason. Else we'd all be a bunch of uncultured barbarians.
pwhodges:
--- Quote from: Sorflakne on 04 Nov 2013, 00:14 ---Some try to use ghoti as an example of how weird the rules of English spelling are.
--- End quote ---
It was G B Shaw who used that example. And even though it's not realistic, it does make the point. I prefer to point out the number of different sounds represented by "ough" (I have nine to hand). (Or ten even - here I am saying them.)
Method of Madness:
--- Quote from: Carl-E on 03 Nov 2013, 22:10 ---Maybe this belongs in the pun thread, but...
--- End quote ---
Oh, no. NO. Someone mentions this thread, so I find it and read all 300+ posts...only to see this. Damn you, sir.
Is it cold in here?:
My wife and I were talking about electric vehicles and she observed that "charging station" is actually a contradiction in terms.
pwhodges:
I was talking to a colleague about the origin of the work "trunk" for the luggage compartment of a car, which we call "boot" over here. She found this thread for me, which I enjoyed in a number of ways.
I'd not previously met the terms "leftpondian" and "rightpondian", and their more detailed derivatives, though referring to the Atlantic as "the pond" is common when talking about the two sides of it.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version