Editing Ghoti (section)

==Explanation==
The word is intended to be pronounced in the same way as ''fish'' ({{IPAc-en|f|ɪ|ʃ}}), using these sounds:
* ''gh'', pronounced {{IPAc-en|f}} as in ''enough'' {{IPAc-en|ɪ|ˈ|n|ʌ|f}} or ''tough'' {{IPAc-en|t|ʌ|f}};
* ''o'', pronounced {{IPAc-en|ɪ}} as in ''women'' {{IPAc-en|ˈ|w|ɪ|m|ɪ|n}};
* ''ti'', pronounced {{IPAc-en|ʃ}} as in ''nation'' {{IPAc-en|ˈ|n|eɪ|ʃ|ən}} or ''motion'' {{IPAc-en|ˈ|m|oʊ|ʃ|ən}}.

The key to the phenomenon is that the pronunciations of the constructed word's three parts are inconsistent with how they would ordinarily be pronounced in those placements. To illustrate: ''gh'' can only resemble ''f'' when following the letters ''ou'' or ''au'' at the end of certain [[morpheme]]s ("tough", "cough", "laugh"), while ''ti'' would only resemble ''sh'' when followed by a vowel sound. The expected pronunciation in English would sound like "[[goatee]]" {{IPAc-en|ˈ|ɡ|oʊ|t|i}}, not "fish".<ref name="nytzimmer">{{cite web |last=Zimmer |first=Ben |author-link=Benjamin Zimmer |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/27/magazine/27FOB-onlanguage-t.html |title=Ghoti |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=25 June 2010 |access-date=23 May 2019}}</ref>

Both of the [[Digraph (orthography)|digraphs]] in the spelling – ''gh'' and ''ti'' – are examples of consonant shifts, the gradual transformation of a consonant in a particular spoken context while retaining its identity in writing. Specifically, "nation" reflects the softening of ''t'' before ''io'' in late Latin and early French,<ref>{{cite book|last=Solodow|first=Joseph B.|title=Latin Alive: The Survival of Latin in English and the Romance Languages|year=2010}}</ref> while "enough" reflects the softening of a terminal ''g'' in [[West Germanic languages]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Agate|first=Dendy|title=A Guide to the English Language: Its History, Development, and Use|year=1919}}</ref> In contrast, [[North Germanic languages]] such as Danish and Swedish retain a harder pronunciation in their corresponding words (''nok'' and ''nog'').