Date: Fri, 1 Dec 1995 17:06:39 -0600
From: Natalie Maynor maynor[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]RA.MSSTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: I before E
That is a really neat explanation, predicting e.g. why we spell "leisure" the
way we do, i.e. because some people pronounce it to rhyme with "measure". Un-
fortunately there are still exceptions: as far as I know nobody pronounces
"seizure" that way, so we should spell it (and the verb it derives from) with
I'm great at extending rules. I extend the "c" to not just the letter "c"
but to anything pronounced [s]. So "seizure" isn't an exception. But then
you're left with "siege."
linguistic principle, the division of linguistic labor)--I never knew "weird"
wasn't pronounced everywhere with an [i].
I consider "weird" and "forfeit" in the same category -- both are ei instead
of ie because both are pronounced [I] instead of [i]. But then there's
"friend" -- an [I] word that is an exception. It's one of very, very few
exceptions, though. Oops. Just thought of something. Do you yankees say
[frInd] or do you have an [E] sound in it? To me the vowel in "friend" is
the same as the vowel in "tin" and "ten" -- [I]. In any case, it's an
exception to the ie/ei rule since I don't think anybody says [frind].
--Natalie (maynor[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ra.msstate.edu)