How do you pronounce 'GHOTI'?

Answer 1

Yes, English spelling can be an adventure, and I enjoy Shaw's joke, though, incidentally, he probably did not originate it
http://alt-usage-english.org/excerpts/fxwhat04.html

But for what it's worth (at the risk of being a killjoy) -- English spelling is often about the history and relationships of words, not just phonetics... and CONTEXT is critical. Thus:

1) "gh" cannot make the "f" sound at the BEGINNING of a word.. only after "ou" (The "f" is a result of a cluster of sound changes in late Middle English/early Modern English; mainly the "Great Vowel Shift" which contributed to all those troublesome "ough" words)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonological_history_of_English_consonants#Elimination_of_velar_fricatives_in_English
http://www.alphadictionary.com/articles/ling006.html

2) "o" [or other vowels] shifting to an i/e sound in a Germanic language is the result of "i-umlaut", that is, it is caused by adding a suffix with an i/e vowel. You don't have one here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanic_umlaut

3) "ti" can only become a "sh"-sound when it is a transition between syllables (so there must be another vowel after the i), not at the end of a word

For all its woes, English spelling DOES have rules and if you acutally follow those rules, the ONLY possible pronunciation for "ghoti" would be like "goatee"
http://www.zompist.com/spell.html

On the other hand, if we allow Shaw's approach, there is another answer to the question "how is 'ghoti' prounced?" which is
"..." (that is, silence! it cannot be pronounced at all!), thus:
"gh" as in night
"o" as in people
t" as in ballet
"i" as in business
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghoti

OR these letters could be combined to spell "HUGE":
"h" having its usual value, [h];
"g" making [j], the sound of "y" in yes, after the *following* consonant as in
"lasagne";
"o" = [u] as in "move",
"t" = [d] as in "Taoism", and
"i" = [Z] as in one pronunciation of "soldier".
http://alt-usage-english.org/excerpts/fxwhat04.html

Answer 2

George Bernard Shaw made up the spelling of 'fish' to show the ridiculousness of the phonetics in the English language GH as in 'tough', O as in 'women' and TI as in 'nation'. It's also been the name of a firm being used as a cover by The Penguin in the sixties Batman series - of course, it didn't take long for the Boy Wonder and the Caped Crusader to work it out!

Answer 3

According to George Bernard Shaw: Fish

You take the 'gh' from a word like laugh, the 'o' from women and the 'ti' from nation.

Answer 4

Asasas

Answer 5

It's FISH. GH = as in cough
O as in women
TI as in nation.
I'll pose a similar question:
What does PHTHOLOGNYRRH spell??

Answer 6

FISH. That's an old one. But if you're young, I guess you haven't heard it before.

Answer 7

Fish

"gh" as in enough
"o" as in women
"ti" as in fiction

Answer 8

Ge-tow

Answer 9

FISH. That is an old one, but still good.

Answer 10

Gaw- tee