flay / flea (and other "ea" words)

[Joel S. Berson]

At 6/19/2009 11:43 AM, Charles Doyle wrote:
>I took the occasion (a "teachable moment," in the current cliche) to
>ask the old favorite history-of-the-language "trivia"
>question:  What four common current English words have that "ea"
>vowel spelling and preserve the pronunciation /e/?

OK, I haven't seen anyone answer this yet.  What are the four (plus "shea")?

And I don't pronounce "measure", etc., like "flay".

Joel

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