I saw the word facetious in a recent topic and immediately thought abstemious and unnoticeably.
I've been talking with lots of backpackers recently and love how rich the English language is. Tough, though, through, thorough, cough, bough. trough must really be hard for them.
GHOTI = Fish: Rough, GH = F; Women, O = I; Station, TI = SH.
The gh in rough sounds like an f, the o in women is pronounced as an i (wimmen) and the ti in station is pronounced as sh. Put the sounds together and you get f i sh. Rough could have been spelt ruff women could have been spelt wimmin and station could have been spelt stashon. But the English language is so quirky that you could argue that ghoti spells fish!
I suspect that was me, Plodnalong. Interesting subject.
Imagine how difficult it is for non-English speaking people to get their heads, and tongues, around our quirky language.
I have a Japanese sister-in-law who my brother brought to Australia 7 years ago. What an effort she has put in! She though she could 'speak English' because they learn it in school in Japan. Poor little thing struggled so much in those first few years.
Now she works in our Education system, would you believe! She teaches Japanese in middle school, but she's often thrown in to take over other classes at times. She's quite laid back about it all now.
I was watching her at a family function the other day, and she was happily chatting away with my sisters friend.
I'm truly proud of her and her fortitude. I like that word too! Fortitude!
For all it's quirks the English language can be a lot of phun (fun) or ghun. Just one humble comma can change the whole, or entire context of a statement or sentence, but you won't have to go to (too, two) gaol (jail) if you transgress or offend. I have a lot of fun with it as my mind goes into over-drive. Politicians make the best fox-farts, or faux-pas, blunders and ambiguous errors when it comes to double meanings. I don't think I was facetious or faecious once, but I could be wrong.
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For all it's quirks the English language can be a lot of phun (fun) or ghun. Just one humble comma can change the whole, or entire context of a statement or sentence, but you won't have to go to (too, two) gaol (jail) if you transgress or offend. I have a lot of fun with it as my mind goes into over-drive. Politicians make the best fox-farts, or faux-pas, blunders and ambiguous errors when it comes to double meanings. I don't think I was facetious or faecious once, but I could be wrong.
And sometimes a picture tells a thousand words.
Editing because that doesn't look right...Chris?!
-- Edited by Beth54 on Saturday 14th of July 2012 04:16:31 PM
The gh in rough sounds like an f, the o in women is pronounced as an i (wimmen) and the ti in station is pronounced as sh. Put the sounds together and you get f i sh. Rough could have been spelt ruff women could have been spelt wimmin and station could have been spelt stashon. But the English language is so quirky that you could argue that ghoti spells fish!
Interesting subject.
And sometimes a picture tells a thousand words. 
