I before E except after C and in "God"

[winterknight]

I dunno why this just popped into my head but....

My high school English teacher's pet spelling peeve concerned one of the many exceptions to the standard I before E rule that everyone gets taught at some point.

Basically, it was that in both "Theos" and "Deus" the E comes before any other vowel, so it should stay there in words like "Atheist" and "Deity" that are derived from them.

This used to wind him up so much that he always used to add "and in God" to the end of the rule. I dunno why, because he never struck me as being particularly religious.

This has been one of Winter's Random Thoughts (tm). We now return you to your sceduled forum.

 

[buzzj]

More random thoughts (tm), please! I don't want to go back to the regularly scheduled forum!! *stamps foot petulantly*

 

[Swellegant]

I've always hated that rule... it seems there are as many exceptions to the rule as followers: I before E except after C; or when pronounced A as in Neighbor and Weigh... but then you get words like Weird, and Atheist, which are not pronounced A (some people do pronounce Deity as A... DAY-ity rather than DEE-ity).

It's just one of those things that make our rich bastard language so difficult to learn... all these different influences, German words take one rule, and Latin words take another rule, and all those in-between words take another rule altogether. We go around coopting other languages, and then we drop their hyphens and diacriticals without any concern for pronunciation.

Technically, Atheist and Deity should be written Athëist and Dëity by the rules of bringing a romantic word (in which there are no dipthongs) into a germanic language (in which dipthongs are the rule rather than the exception); and cooperation (or coopting) should be written either co-operation (as it used to be) or cöoperation by the rules of joining words from different sources.

But I fear that would just confuse things even more. Most people don't even know how to achieve diacriticals in a Windows environment, and are therefore incapable of spelling my name correctly. But I don't mind (though it's called Character Map, by they way).

 

[hurynwait2]

Budweiser ?

 

[Rand]

More random thoughts (tm), please! I don't want to go back to the regularly scheduled forum!! *stamps foot petulantly*

I too greatly enjoyed the thread - especially the dissertation in post #3. The history and genealogy of words and language is so intriguing.

Thank you all for this pleasant oasis amongst the other threads.

Rand

 

[luminum]

Oh hush and deal. I haven't had a problem

 

[douseiai]

english sucks thats why im learning japanese... i hope that english is someday made phonetic... mostly because i'm tired of teachin people how to spell... in japanese (and other phonetic languages with an alphabet) its easy to spell stuff and you will notice fewer and fewer rules needed to determine how to spell things...

 

[luminum]

...That is, unless you use kanji.

 

[douseiai]

shush you

 

[cocktales]

English/American Language: Rules and more rules to remember to follow, exceptions, etc!!!

AARRGGHH!!

Why did our language become one of the world languages for everyone to speak when it is difficult??

Let's have an easy language with fewer rules!

K?

 

[slobone]

But I fear that would just confuse things even more. Most people don't even know how to achieve diacriticals in a Windows environment, and are therefore incapable of spelling my name correctly. But I don't mind (though it's called Character Map, by they way).

Well, of course you can spell your name any way you like, darling. But if you must go on about correct use of diacriticals, I can't resist pointing out that the French would spell it "Robert-Marlène".

 

[dpnice]

Have u heard.........................

Yes it is a rich and beautiful language, even the little words.

 

[Nonimus]

Budweiser ?

That's why i stick to Stella.

 

[Swellegant]

Well, of course you can spell your name any way you like, darling. But if you must go on about correct use of diacriticals, I can't resist pointing out that the French would spell it "Robert-Marlène".

Ah, but you see, that's not the way it's pronounced. It's not "Mar-Lehn," it's "Mar-LEH-neh." And the Robert is "Rah-burt," not "Roh-BAIR," as les Français would have it.

While yours is the usual French spelling and pronunciation of the name, mine is spelled the way I pronounce it... which I guess is technically the German pronunciation, after the immortal Miss Dietrich. I also love that it looks like surprised eyebrows, as if the Es are shocked to find themselves in such company.

Most Americans, unless properly coached, will pronounce it Mar-LEEN or Mar-LAYNE (which makes me cringe), and those who are properly coached will still Americanize the pronunciation and call me Mar-LAY-nah. But whatever, so long as they're talking about me, and saying nice things, they can pronounce my name any old way that they like.

I didn't mean to go on about diacriticals, though. If I remember correctly, at the time a lot of people were telling me that they couldn't type my name when responding to my posts because they didn't know how to make the "accent marks," and I wanted to drop a hint about how it's done.

 

[me12121]

I guess Science doesn't follow the rule.