I before E (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

This rule is fine if you need to reference a rule every time you run
across a word with "ie" or "ei".  As I and others have said in this
string, though, most of the time you don't need a rule because you know
(by rote, instinct, memorization, or otherwise) how to spell a
particular word.  It's when you run across a word that you don't know
that a "rule" is useful, and in my case, "I before E except after C, or
when sounded as A as in Neighbor and Weigh" is perfectly useful -- it
almost always solves the problem I have at that instantaneous moment.

The words I don't know how to spell don't necessarily correlate with the
statistical distribution of words containing "ie" and "ei".

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
> Behalf Of Tom Zurinskas
> Sent: Thursday, June 25, 2009 10:11 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: I before E
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> --------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Tom Zurinskas <truespel at HOTMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: I before E
>
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> --------
>
> 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
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> ----------------------------------------
> > 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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Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

------------------------------------------------------------
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