AVKO Educational
Research Foundation
A
non-profit organization devoted to helping
teachers, parents, and researchers since 1974
[
For
Parents and Home Schoolers ] [
Classroom Teachers ]
[
Catalog ] [
Workshops
] [ Home Page ]
[
Research
] [
AVKO comes from Audio, Visual, Kinesthetic, & Oral a multi-sensory approach.
Could /fish/ be spelled ghoti or ....FICI....?
To illustrate the weirdness of English spelling, George Bernard Shaw once said we might as well spell the word fish "ghoti." The fact of the matter is, Shaw was only partially right but 100% wrong!
True, the gh may pronounced /f/ as in laugh.
The o may be pronounced /i/ as in women.
The ti may be pronounced /sh/ as in nation.
But there is no word in English in which the initial letters gh are ever pronounced /f/. There is no word in English language ending in ti in which the ti is pronounced /sh/.
As a matter of fact the sound /fish/ is spelled fish only in words that can be reduced to a base (morpheme) of one meaningful syllable. The words fish, fishes, fished, fishing, fisherman, fishermen, fishery, and fisheries can all be reduced to "fish."
But surely we wouldn't want to spell beneficial as benefishal or official as offishal and that should be suficient to make my point. The sound /fish/ happens to always be spelled fici in words that have a base of more than one syllable. For the phonic patterns rarely taught in schools see The Fancy Words.
If you have comments about this website or questions concerning spelling, invented spelling, whole language, phonics, learning disabilities, homeschooling, etc., you may always e-mail DonMcCabe@aol.com. We appreciate any comments that will help us make this website even more useful.
If you have comments about this website or questions concerning spelling, invented spelling, whole language, phonics, learning disabilities, homeschooling, etc., you may always e-mail DonMcCabe@aol.com. We appreciate any comments that will help us make this website even more useful.
All donations are greatly appreciated. If you would like to support our mission which is to raise the level of literacy to the point where the words, illiteracy, phonemic awareness, learning disabilities, dysgraphia, family literacy, adult literacy, and illegible handwriting will no longer have relevance, please mail your tax-deductible check (in U.S. dollars) to The AVKO Educational Research Foundation, 3084 Willard Road, Suite W, Birch Run, MI 48415-7801. The AVKO Foundation is recognized by the IRS as a 501(C)3 publicly supported organization working with teachers, parents, tutors, and homeschooling parents, publishing materials developed by its research, and providing free daily tutoring at its local reading clinic.