So long, and thanks for all the ghoti.

When I participated in the test for the general evaluation of our English skills before the first semester, to my big suprise I got the top score in grammar. To my suprise because I always hated grammar - in German as in English - because as soon as I try to solve tasks thinking about the underlying rules, I get confused and mess things up. I suppose it only worked because in that test I completely followed my gut feeling. So, just don't think about what lies beneath.
The same goes for the English language in general. Today in phonetics, we were talking about the pretty much non-existent system of orthography in English - how there are several ways to express one sound in script (like "ee" or "ea" or even "ei"), how there are digraphs ("th", "ph", "gh") and silent letters ("kn", "sw") and there just are seemingly hardly any rules about how to spell something - or to read it once it's been written. (I might just as well have written "their r seaminglee hadlee anee rools abowt how too spell sumthing" - read it aloud and it will sound pretty much the same). I mean, in reading, most of the time I guess the pronunciation right, or the spelling if I hear a strange word for the first time. But isn't it absurd, when you think about it?
And people thought they had to simplify the "illogical" German orthography ten years ago. English is what needs an orthography reform... Then again, it would look horrible.
Anyway, that makes it rather obvious why Phillips-sensei (who happens to be our prof for Phonetics & Phonology) made it clear that for learning transcription into the IPA we have to forget how the words are written in English. It also made for some quite interesting discussion and thoughts on kaneda's and my part as we wondered about all that phonetic stuff. We're looking forward to learning transcription. And to getting the sort of feeling for the language that we have for German and English for Japanese too. At least Japanese orthography follows a consistent system...
But it must be fascinating to find the reasons for those different ways of spelling one thing. And to hear native speakers in now dead languages (which is, obviously, impossible, I know). Who knows how they pronounced stuff - maybe not at all as it is taught today...

PS: "ghoti" is what George B. Shaw (sorry, seefuchs) suggested as the spelling for "fish". "gh" as in "enough", "o" as in "women" and "ti" as in "nation". Works out.

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( Macht's gut, und danke für den Ghoti. )

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