Thursday, November 4, 2010
I Before E
This morning I found myself using that little i before e poem that I learned in English class a hundred years ago. You know the one. I before E except after C or when sounded like A as in neighbor or weigh. So could someone please explain ancient to me? I had to look it up in the dictionary to make sure I was spelling it right. Damn rules!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
Sorry, but I'm still struggling with something being "trite" and not "tright." Or the difference between "Polish" and "polish" is capitalization.
Or wind(a breeze) and wind (like a wind-up toy)? The English language can certainly drive you crazy!
Read or better, watch-- if you can find it on-- the Adventure of English. It talks about how English is a mongrel of a language, borrowing from everyone. I'm in love with the show... it does shed some light on how English came to be as it did. Mainly by stealing words from every where and then having spelling "standardized" by fools.
I think the poem has to do with a certain group of words, but ancient is Latin/ Greek based and probably came into the language after the poem, maybe?
I guess when they called America the melting pot it wasn't just the people but the languages that got all stirred together. I'll keep an eye open for that show, Clair, it sounds interesting.
I always felt "weird" was an exception too and even now had to try it both ways.
Yep, that's another one, Patti! Somedays I feel like I spend more time with my head in the dictionary than actually writing!
Post a Comment