[Bilbo1967]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Here's a good uncontested quote from Sammy, from his book The Innocents Abroad:

"They spell it 'Vinci' and pronounce it 'Vinchy'. Foreigners always spell better than they pronounce."

Spelling and pronounciation are often not particularly congruent. A snippet I always remember, which I read in a Bill Bryson book ('Mother Tongue' I believe, although I think he quoted it from elsewhere) is that FISH could be logically spelt GHOTI, as in:

The GH sound from 'enough'
The O sound from 'women'
The TI sound from 'nation'

What a great language!