At 01:20 AM 2/21/2004, you wrote: >From: David Silberstein <davids at kithrup.com> >To: Mark A Mandel <mam at theworld.com> > >On Fri, 20 Feb 2004, Mark A Mandel wrote: > > > >>On Fri, 20 Feb 2004, Casey Rousseau wrote: > >> > >>#Peirs Anthony > >> Piers > >> > >>#Tolkein > >> Tolkien > >> > >>"I before E except after C, > >> Or when pronounced 'ay', as in 'neighbor' and 'weigh'." > > > >Heinlein. Peirce. Sleight. Seize. Deice. Weir. Deil. > >Deity. Deis. Their. Heir. > >And "weird", "sheik", "foreign", "height", "leisure". > >I think it was Patrick Nielsen Hayden (coincidentally SKZB's >editor) who formulated the rule, "I before e except when it isn't." >This rule has the advantage of having no exceptions. Actually....when I first saw Mark commenting on the "rule", I immediately thought about an article I read a while back that discussed how "rules" such as "I before E except after C, except for the exceptions" are simplifications of much deeper rules. Mark can probably explain it better than I can... I'll note that using names as guide in this matter will lead you astray, since many names are not _english_ and therefore are not following english spelling rules. There are probably several "borrow" words that confuse the issue (although I can't think of any right now) :)