A Conversation for Oddities of English
'Ghoti' and various pronunciations of 'gh'
SeedNotHerd Started conversation Sep 30, 2001
'In lazy sweeps the crow-like chough/ Returns to nest across the lough./ The farmer with asthmatic cough/ Walks down the pathway, sometime through/ A valley where the wind may sough/ Its music over many a bough./ His wife prepares the Sunday dough/ While Bert, their son, whose hands are rough/ Gets ready to hitch up the plough.'
This is from a poem called 'Farming with the Goughs'. I do not know the author. I'm sorry: I'll write that again. I do not know who the author is.
'Ghoti' and various pronunciations of 'gh'
Spiff Posted Oct 3, 2001
Love the poem! A challenge for the well-read native speaker, a nightmare for those who wish to master English as a foreign language!
I'm off to have a gander in Chambers to see what the wind might be up to when it 'soughs'. 
'Ghoti' and various pronunciations of 'gh'
MaW Posted Oct 17, 2001
I really like this Entry. It took me a while to get why 'ghoti' can be pronounced 
and not to sound like the name for a certain kind of small and irritating beard.
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'Ghoti' and various pronunciations of 'gh'
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