Spelling (1)

George Bernard Shaw is said to have written a London Times article¹ when he was campaigning for spelling reform, giving the following example:

• If gh is pronounced f as in enough
• If o is pronounced i as in women
• If th is pronounced sh as in motion
• Then the spelling of fish should be ghoti

Many people remember way back in 1992, when the then Vice-President Dan Quayle's image was unfairly destroyed by a simple spelling mistake. At the Luis Munoz Rivera School he 'helped' a 12-year old student spell the word potato. Although the student had already spelt² the word correctly, Quayle added an "e" to the end of the word. Not that it matters one jot of course, there are much more important things for a vice-president to worry about; like himself and the president being voted out of office a few months later.

Sew, if you have difficulty spelling sum times, take hart - your not a loan!

Here's yet another alternative spelling of potato:

• If gh is pronounced p as in hiccough
• If ough is pronounced o as in dough
• If phth is pronounced t as in phthisis
• If eigh is pronounced a as in neighbour
• If tte is pronounced t as in gazette
• If eau is pronounced o as in beau
• Then the spelling of potato should be ghoughphtheightteeau