6 ms·
The explanation you gave is already contained in the cited Wikipedia article. I think this "ghoti" example is more of a tongue-in-cheek mocking of pronunciation
by degun 1y ago
The explanation you gave is already contained in the cited Wikipedia article. I think this "ghoti" example is more of a tongue-in-cheek mocking of pronunciation inconsistencies. If you want a jarring example, consider laughter and slaughter. I know, i know, they have different origins, but still, it confuses foreigners like me while learning the language.
- mousethatroared 1y agoBut English orthography isn't meant to serve foreigners. Im ESL, I struggled with English spelling as much as the next latin speaker who's already learned to read and write in foreigner. But now that I get the reason behind it, I love it. I consider English orthography worthy of UNESCO protection, even. In fact, I am annoyed at the regular spelling of my two latin languages that have left so much history behind.
- hyperpape 1y ago> But English orthography isn't meant to serve foreigners. Or natives. It is slower for children to learn to read English than other languages.
- jgwil2 1y agoTeaching my toddler to read now and I definitely feel like if we spoke Spanish my work would be done already.
- bluGill 1y agoProbably not. Toddlers generally don't have the brain to learn any reading. Spanish's advantages in reading isn't how young you can start learning to read, it is how fast you can stop reading. Spanish schools stop teaching reading takes about 5 years to learn, English 6, and Japanese 9 - after that much training kids are finally considered to read anything. (sometimes we talk about college level reading, but that is more about mastery of topic specific topic - Doctors, lawyers, and engineers each have special vocabulary that needs extra training to read, but they cannot read each other's technical papers)
- mousethatroared 1y agoI learned how to read in six months. My kid took two and half years. The Chinese take 10 years. So what? Are the Chinese terribly educated?
- akst 1y agoEnglish Orthography doesn't exactly serve native speakers either.
- devilbunny 1y agoIt’s fairly good at helping us understand the etymology. Have a “y” acting as a vowel in the spelling? Good chance it’s Greek. Have a “k”? Almost certainly not Latin.
- bluGill 1y agoThat is trivia that is useless in almost all contexts. I've been a native English speaker all my life and this is the first I've heard of that. I can't think of any situation in life where knowing that fact would have been helpful. Your claim seems reasonable, but if someone says you are wrong I wouldn't fact check it even if clear links were posted so that I could.
- mousethatroared 1y agoIm a materials scientist and I use etymology every day. Knowing etymology is a an easy way to memorize things.
- devilbunny 1y agoIf you’re seeing a word for the first time, it is pretty useful - partly with pronunciation but definitely with meaning. You do have to have some familiarity with the source languages, but if it’s an unfamiliar but nativized word, those are almost always ultimately Latin or Greek.
- int_19h 1y agoIf you're seeing the word for the first time and need to figure out how to pronounce it, how would you know that “y” is acting as a vowel and not as a consonant in the first place?