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To: James C. Bennett

“The Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw is said to have joked that the word “fish” could legitimately be spelled “ghoti,” by using the “gh” sound from “enough,” the “o” sound from “women,” and the “ti” sound from “action.””

You don’t have to fabricate absurd example, there are plenty of them in the actual language.

For example how the hell do you get “one” to sound like “won”.

Having learned english as an italian (which is very phonetic) speaker, very often I felt like I might as well be reading chinese, since there was so little correspondence between the letters that made up a word and its pronunciation.

Italian is so phonetic that spelling does not exist in Italy - I wasn’t aware of the concept/term until I got here.

Now when it comes to grammar, that’s a different story. English grammar is a piece of cake.


18 posted on 06/04/2010 9:29:06 PM PDT by aquila48
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To: aquila48

Well learnt Aquila. I’m an ESL teacher and I can tell you Italians learn English quick.
As you know one/won are homophones.
So, I had a group (of brain dead oafs)at France Telcom and one of them asked me what “homophones” are, so I answered “Gay Telephones”. It seemed funny at the time. Anyway, they complained to my boss and I was pulled from the contract.
Remember, Heteronyms row/row, tear/tear.


36 posted on 06/04/2010 11:10:37 PM PDT by paristwelve (Feeling sorry for things is just an excuse for not celebrating your own happiness.)
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