2006-07-25 09:40:24 · 7 answers · asked by wereinlovemnc4ever 5 in Education & Reference ➔ Words & Wordplay
For the same reason ghoti is pronounced fish. It is an imaginary word used to illustrate irregularities in English spelling.
"gh", /f/ as in laugh
"o", /i/ as in women
"ti", /sh/ as in nation
2006-07-25 09:47:05 · answer #1 · answered by williegod 6 · 2⤊ 2⤋
Because we got the word through French. In French, the "sh" sound of "ship" is spelled "ch". Ultimately, the word is Native American, but we borrowed it from French.
2006-07-25 18:52:48 · answer #2 · answered by Taivo 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
alot of the words in the english language are "borrowed" from another language. For example: spaghatti ~ italian, et cetera~ french, detour~ french and there are many many more; As for Michigan it was a First Nations word that worked it's way into English and was therefore adopted by North Americans.
2006-07-25 17:05:14 · answer #3 · answered by Summer Rain 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
for the same reason Ghoti is pronounced "fish" gh and in laugh, o as in women, and ti as in caution...got this one from my high school English teacher way back before a lot of the people who use this site were born.
2006-07-25 20:57:27 · answer #4 · answered by knittinmama 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
ch has 3 pronunciations:
/ch/ as in church
/sh/ as in machine
/k/ as in school
Some of these pronunciation variations are probably arbitrary, others due to the origin of the word.
2006-07-25 18:14:11 · answer #5 · answered by Juju 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is a native American name with a French twist on the spelling.
http://www.michigan.gov/hal/0,1607,7-160-15481_20826_20829-54118--,00.html#name
2006-07-25 16:59:48 · answer #6 · answered by livysmom27 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If it is pronounced with 'ch' that would be very close to 미ì¹ê² ë¤ (mee -chee-gye-ne) ---> "I'm gonna be crasy" in Korean. ;-) that's why they they made it sound as "sh" :-))
2006-07-26 11:48:33 · answer #7 · answered by Igor K 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋