It ’s a blight , a thoroughly tough troth , enough to make you desire to fight … or express mirth . There are so many elbow room to pronounce , ornotpronounce , the English " gh , " almost none of which have anything to do with the usual " thousand " or " h " sound . Why is it there to begin with ?
Once upon a time , the " gh " did stand for a specific sound , one we do n’t have in English today , except in interjections of disgust likeblech . That back - of - the - pharynx spirant ( written as /x/ in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet)isfound in German , and if you depend for the German counterpart of English " gh " words , you will often incur the sound there : visible light … licht , nighttime … nacht , eight … acht , high … hoch , neighbor … nachbar , though … doch .
So when you see a " gh , " it commonly signify that it was pronounced with theblechsound in Old English , when our writing system was first developed . Early scribes had to accommodate the Roman alphabet to English , and since Latin did n’t have the /x/ audio , they used " heat content " or a non - Roman Catholic fictional character phone a yogh ( ȝ ) . finally , during the halfway English geological period , they settle on " gh . "
By that time the orthoepy was already changing . The sound turned into /f/ or was dropped entirely . The Great Vowel Shiftwas underway and many portion of the language were in flux , but by the time the shift was consummate , the printing insistency had steady the writing system , and the " gh , " pointing back to an earlier English , was here to delay .
Not all examples of English " gh " can be traced back to the /x/ auditory sensation . The word - initial " gh " ofghostandghoulcame fromthe habits of Flemish setter . discussion borrowed from Italian likespaghettiandghettojust stick with Italian spelling conventions .
And there are some words that show how " gh " took on a living of its own in English , discussion that come into the oral communication long after Old English and never had a /x/ sound in them . Delightandsprightlywere qualify under the influence oflightandright . Sleighwas made to look likeweigh , perhaps to avoid looking likeslay . Haughtywas modeled on word liketaughtandaught , because , well , does n’t that bet more haughty thanhawty ? Like it or not , " naught " now stands for a specific orthoepy , with a rounded vowel sound , that really ca n’t be spelled any other elbow room ( at least in dialects without thecaught - cotmerger ) . Is instruct the same as tot or tawt ? I think naught .
