Date: Thu, 31 Oct 1996 11:28:25 +0000

From: "E. W. Gilman" egilman[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]WEBSTER.M-W.COM

Subject: ghoti



Can anyone tell me where George Bernard Shaw said that _fish_ could

be soelled ghoti? It is not in the collection of his writings on

language, and the editor of that collection says only that Shaw was

associated with the story of the ghoti spelling. I have found a few

references to this spelling (in Pinker, for instance), but nobody

mentions where Shaw actually said this, if indeed he did. I begin to

suspect an apocryphal tale.



E.W.Gilman

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