I before E

[Arnold Zwicky]

i've been comparing the American and British guidelines for IE vs. EI,
using the amended version of the British guidelines i suggested in my
last posting on the matter (in which EI is taken as the ultimate
default).  as i said earlier, the British version usually given
applies only to spellings of /i/ -- in which domain it works pretty
well, with a relatively small list of exceptions:

[in some varieties] either, neither; [for some speakers] leisure; [for
some speakers] sheikh; seize; [for some speakers] weir; [for some
speakers] weird; caffeine, casein, codeine, [when disyllabic] protein
     (proper names, some examples:) Deirdre, Keith, Neil, Sheila

as it turns out, taking EI to be the ultimate default does a lot of
good work, since that covers a lot of exceptions to the American
version.  it does pick up at least three exceptions of its own, with
IE spelling a vowel other than /i/:
   friend, handkerchief, mischief

still, neither version covers a lot of territory, especially when you
stick to reasonably common vocabulary, and both are fairly complex,
with three clauses in each.

arnold

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