Charles Ollier observed that GHOTI can be pronounced “fish”:
Melville Dewey, who devised the Dewey Decimal System, suggested that GHEAUGHTEIGHPTOUGH spells “potato”:
This sort of thing can get out of hand quickly. In his 1845 Plea for Phonotypy and Phonography, Alexander John Ellis offered SCHIESOURRHCE for “scissors,” PHAIGHPHEAWRAIBT for “neither,” PHAIGHPHEAWRAIBT for “favorite,” PSOURRPHUAKNTW for “servant,” and (fittingly) EOLOTTHOWGHRHOIGHUAY for “orthography.”
GHOTI might even be silent:
Other languages, it seems, have simply surrendered — the Klingon word for fish is ghotI.
