Why the word Fish could have been spelt "Ghoti"

Pronouncing English words has always been a particular dilemma for ESL learners. This is particularly difficult due to the difference between the way a word is pronounced and the way it is spelt. For instance, the words night, tough, answer, Wednesday etc... all have an awkward spelling that does not correspond with the way the word is pronounced. There are several reasons for this, one of them being that in the past some of those mute letters were once voiced.

However, as time has gone by there has been an evolution in pronunciation whereas spelling has remained, in essence, dormant. Evidently, some have proposed to change this throughout the centuries, for example, Noah Webster, Alexander John Ellis and of course George Bernard Shaw author of Pygmalion.  The last of which gave the following ironic example of how crazy English spelling actually is.

Of course, the pronunciation of those letters are not always as in the example, but it gives us some food for thought. Does it not?

Enjoy