Somewhere in Finnegans Wake, James Joyce wrote 'Gee each owe tea eye smells fish.' What Joyce was really saying was that the letters G, H, O, T, and I spell FISH. Can you explain why they do?

tented

It's about word or letter pronounciations. Think of the gh as in a word such as 'tough' the o as in a word such as 'women' and the ti in words such as {'nation;} and if you pronounce them as in the example words you get .... fish Nov 13 02, 11:35 AM

Barrow boy

This wasn't James Joyce's joke. Fellow Irishman George Bernard Shaw was the originator. Nov 13 02, 12:38 PM

Gnomon

The spelling of English really annoyed George Bernard Shaw. This was the example he used to demonstrate the point. He wanted a standard phonetic spelling to be used so that everybody could talk the same. Nov 13 02, 2:26 PM

Friar Tuck

On the same lines you can get 'potato' out of 'ghoughpteighbteau' P hiccough O though T ptomaine A neigh T debt O bureau Nov 13 02, 5:06 PM

Seamus

Can't think why Shaw thought English was odd. Irish is really odd. Niamh pronouced Neeve, Murchu pronounced Murphy etcetcetcetcetc Nov 14 02, 5:05 PM