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Ghoti is a creative respelling of the word fish, used to illustrate irregularities in English spelling and pronunciation.
The word is intended to be pronounced in the same way as fish (/fɪʃ/), using these sounds:
- gh, pronounced /f/ as in enough /ɪˈnʌf/ or tough /tʌf/;
- o, pronounced /ɪ/ as in women /ˈwɪmɪn/;
- ti, pronounced /ʃ/ as in nation /ˈneɪʃən/ or motion /ˈmoʊʃən/.
The key to the phenomenon is that the pronunciations of the constructed word's three parts are inconsistent with how they would ordinarily be pronounced in those placements. To illustrate: gh can only resemble f when following the letters ou or au at the end of certain morphemes ("tough", "cough", "laugh"), while ti would only resemble sh when followed by a vowel sound. The expected pronunciation in English would sound like "goatee" /ˈɡoʊti/, not "fish".[1]
Both of the digraphs in the spelling — gh and ti — are examples of consonant shifts, the gradual transformation of a consonant in a particular spoken context while retaining its identity in writing. Specifically, "nation" reflects the softening of t before io in late Latin and early French,[2] while "enough" reflects the softening of a terminal g in West Germanic languages.[3] In contrast, North Germanic languages such as Danish and Swedish retain a harder pronunciation in their corresponding words (nok and nog).
In 1815, there were several examples of absurd spellings given in a book by Alexander J. Ellis, A Plea for Phonotypy and Phonography, which advocated spelling reform. However, ghoti was not among the examples, which were all relatively lengthy and thus harder to remember.[4]
The first confirmed use of ghoti is in a letter dated 11 December 1855 from Charles Ollier to Leigh Hunt. On the third page of the letter, Ollier explains that his son William, who was 31, had "hit upon a new method of spelling Fish." Ollier then demonstrates the rationale, "So that ghoti is fish."[5][4][6]
An early known published reference is an October 1874 article by S. R. Townshend Mayer in St. James's Magazine, which cites the letter.[6]
Another relatively early appearance of ghoti was in a 1937 newspaper article,[4] and the term is alluded to in the 1939 James Joyce experimental work of fiction Finnegans Wake.[7]
Ghoti is often cited to support English spelling reform, and is often attributed to George Bernard Shaw,[8] a supporter of this cause. However, the word does not appear in Shaw's writings,[4] and a biography of Shaw attributes it instead to an anonymous spelling reformer.[9] Similar constructed words exist that demonstrate English idiosyncrasies, but ghoti is one of the most widely recognized.[1]
- In Finnegans Wake (published in 1939), James Joyce alludes to ghoti: "Gee each owe tea eye smells fish." ("G-H-O-T-I spells 'fish'.") (p. 299). On p. 51, that fishabed ghoatstory may also allude to ghoti.
- In the artistic language Klingon, ghotI’ /ɣoˈtʰɪʔ/ is the proper word for "fish".[10]
- In "An Egg Grows in Gotham", a 1966 episode of the television series Batman, the villain Egghead uses "Ghoti Oeufs" as the name for his caviar business, and Batman explains the reference to Robin.[11]
- Ghoti Hook is a 1990s Christian punk band.
- Ghoti has been used to test speech synthesizers.[12] The Speech! allophone-based speech synthesizer software for the BBC Micro was tweaked to pronounce ghoti as fish.[13] Examination of the code reveals the string GHOTI used to identify the special case.
- In the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game, there is a series of fish-type cards called "Ghoti".[14]
- The second track of Lupe Fiasco's 2022 album Drill Music in Zion is titled "Ghoti".[15]
- Vocaloid producer NILFRUITS uses the line "ghoti, ghoti" accompanying the sung lyrics of "fish, fish" in his 2018 song Hungry Nicole.[16]
- English-language spelling reform
- English orthography
- English phonology
- "The Chaos", a poem which demonstrates the irregularity of English orthography
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