Comment by virtualritz
3 days ago
There is is, Spielberg spelled wrong as "Speilberg" four (all) times in the article.
Does anyone know why Americans do this regularly, swapping i and e especially in words of German origin?
3 days ago
There is is, Spielberg spelled wrong as "Speilberg" four (all) times in the article.
Does anyone know why Americans do this regularly, swapping i and e especially in words of German origin?
Maybe because Anglos sometimes pronounce e like i and ei is more common in english spelling for a long vocal?
To be fair, German "ie" and "ei" is one of the few special rules which make no sense (or lost their sense in time). The 'e' in 'ie' is Dehnungs-e for elongation, just a notation that the i is longer pronounced (like Wiese, Biene). (Special rule: if ie is at the end of a word like familie (latin familia) often it is a diphtong and both vocals are pronounced).
"ei" is a bit stupid, because it is not pronounced "ei" but like "ai" or "ay" (eg Mayer).
The weirdest dipthongs in German are definitely "eu" and "äu". I mean, /oi/? Wtf?
I'm not sure the generalization is accurate. Most of us can remember the 'i before e' rule we were taught as kids, but the English language is a celebrated mess of borrowed words and guidelines masquerading as rules. It is admittedly confusing for native and non-native speakers alike, but if we throw a reliance on spell check into the mix, which does little to help with spelling a person's name, we just create more opportunity for degradation.
That said, it should be a pretty hard rule when writing about a person to, at the very least, check to make sure you spelled their name correctly.
Right, I before E except after C, except when you run a feisty heist on a weird beige foreign neighbor. Caffeine strung atheists are reinventing protein at their leisure. Plebeians may deign to forfeit either that or seize the language and reinvent it
Has anyone actually counted whether that rule is more often true than wrong?
Brief mention on Language Log back in 2009[0] says 'They are saying that teaching the list of "-cei-" words directly is a better strategy than teaching the rule: it is not sufficiently general to pay its way.'
Which is basically saying the rule is worthless?
[0] https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1525
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The rule only applies to vowel sounds like the ones in believe/receive. There are versions of the rhyme that attempt to include this caveat.
Being unscientific, societies veil deficient idiocies, reifying their weird, counterfeit policies.
> Does anyone know why Americans do this regularly, swapping i and e especially in words of German origin?
You should see what they do to place names like Edinburgh.
It’s a good thing - at least we know it was not written by AI
It's a curious thing. Nowadays if I post online, I don't even bother anymore with fixing typos or small mistakes.
perhaps due to ignorance for the mnemonic rhyme "i before e, except after c"
It's wrong in Einstein's name, twice.
heh, every rule has exceptions
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