English spelling origin (OT?)

[Thom Harrison]

None of this accounts, either, for spellings like those of "debt" and
"accommodate," which were modified to make them look more like their Latin
originals.

Thom


-----Original Message-----
From: Laurence Horn [mailto:laurence.horn at YALE.EDU]
Sent: Wednesday, December 11, 2002 10:45 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: English spelling origin (OT?)


Thom Harrison writes:
>
>The spellings mentioned above apply to English words, of course, and one
>must take into account the fact that about half the vocabulary of English
is
>French.  The "i before e except after c" rule is a rule which works very
>well for French words like "receive" and "relieve," but not at all well for
>English words like "neighbor" and "weigh."
>
The version I remember from grade school goes

I before E
Except after C,
Or when sounded as A*
As in "neighbor" and "weigh"

This one has fewer exceptions, one of which is "weird", which was
explained by the fact that, after all, it is weird.

Larry

*Long "a", of course