I before E

[Tom Zurinskas]

Word frequency plays a role.

In print the letter string "ie" appears in about 1% of all words. Of these
The sound ~ee is associated with about 63%
The sound ~ie (eye) is associated with about 21%

In print the letter string "ei" appears in about 0.6% of all words.  Of these
The sound ~air (primaily "their" ~thair) makes up about 58%
The sound eeyee (as in being ~beeyeeng) makes up about 20%
The sound ~ee or ~ie (as in either) makes up about 8%
The sound ~ae (as in eight ~aet) makes up about 6%
The sound ~ee (as in receive ~reesseev) makes up about 4%

A general rule for vowels containing "ie" or "ei" would be:
For the sound of ~ae (A) it's "e" before "i".
For the sound of ~ie (I) it's "i" before "e", especially if you say "EYE-ther"
For the sound of ~ee (E), it's "i" before "e" except after c which becomes ~ae (A).

ref - Collins Cobuild data

Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL5+
see truespel.com













----------------------------------------
> Date: Thu, 25 Jun 2009 10:59:06 -0700
> From: zwicky at STANFORD.EDU
> Subject: I before E
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Arnold Zwicky
> Subject: I before E
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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