"i" before "e" except after "c"

[Alison Murie]

On Jun 24, 2009, at 1:27 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Fwd: "i" before "e" except after "c"
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> Comments interleaved.
>
> At 6/24/2009 12:58 PM, Arnold Zwicky wrote:
> On Jun 23, 2009, at 9:41 PM, Pauline Bryant wrote:
>>> ...
>>>> The rule works pretty well if you were taught the whole rule:
>>>>
>>>> i before e
>>>> except after c
>>>> when the sound is ee. .....(That sound is [i] or ~ee.)
>>>>
>>>> It's the last line that makes the rule work.
>
> I don't understand this last line.  Is it "when the sound is ee"
> after a C?  That doesn't seem to add anything useful, I think,
> because all the C-words are spelled ei.  (Except science, which has a
>
I think it's trying to account for the german-derived words  where e-i
is pronounced /ai/.
It doesn't mean when the sound is ee after c.  It's a separate clause.
AM

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