You know. This kind of thing bothers me, and I’ve tried to let it go…but I just CAN’T.
Because -gh is only ever pronounced like an f when it falls at the END of the word. Putting gh at the front of a word means it will be pronounced with a hard “g”.
Similarly, “ti” only takes on the “sh” sound when it is in the middle of a word, never at the beginning.
The o sound like i…well, that comes from lazy pronunciation, but I’ll allow that there MAY be legitimate times an o would take on the short i sound.
So, ghoti, when following English phonics rules, would NEVER be pronounced “fish”.
It is due to lazy pronunciation, though. We SAY “wimmin”, although properly spoke, it wouldn’t be.
I will slightly ammend my comment about the gh ALWAYS being at the end. Really, it is the ugh combination that is sometimes pronounced as an f (I don’t believe there is any case where it is without the u), but it might not necessarily be at the end. For example, “roughen” or “toughen”. But those are just making the adjective form and turning it into a verb form.
@profmatt, with the help of certain enablers, is getting close to providing the kind of shenanigans that I thought had been relegated to the status of legend…
