Crazy English Spelling and Pronunciation

Ghoti is often attributed to George Bernard Shaw, however there is an earlier known published reference from 1874, credited to one William Ollier Jr (born 1824).

1. the phoneme (sound) /f/ can also be spelled ‘gh’ (laugh).
2. the phoneme /I/ can also be spelled ‘O’ (women).
3. the phoneme /ʃ/ can also be spelled ‘ti’ (nation).

It should be noted that the location of the letters goes against the rules of pronunciation because the constructed word is inconsistent with how those letters would be pronounced. For example, the letters “gh” cannot be pronounced /f/ at the beginning of a syllable, and the letters “ti” cannot be pronounced /ʃ/ at the end of a syllable.

Here is another one: ‘teacher’ can also be written as ‘edeture’.

1. /t/ as in asked.
2. /i:/ as in me.
3. /tʃə/ as in mixture.