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)