The strangest language

At their cabin in Big Bear, my parents have a little metal board and a box of magnetized plastic letters like many people post on their refrigerators. During recent visit, we took turns spelling out various messages on the board.

Inspired by who-knows-what, one morning I filled the board with words that end with a differently-spelled "aff" sound:

• staff
• laugh
• gaffe
• carafe
• half
• graph

This got us talking a bit about how strange the English language is and how difficult it can be to learn to recognize and spell many English words.

Recalling a puzzle she once saw, my mom wrote the following on a piece of paper and asked if I could pronounce it:

ghoti

These letters (at least as they occasionally sound in other English words) can be pronounced as a very common English word. Is anyone willing to venture a guess?