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"I before E, except after C" is a mnemonic rule of thumb for English spelling. If one is unsure whether a word is spelled with the sequence ''ei'' or ''ie'', the rhyme suggests that the correct order is ''ie'' unless the preceding letter is ''c'', in which case it is ''ei''. For example: * ''ie'' in ''believe'', ''fierce'', ''collie'', ''die'', ''friend'' * ''ei'' after ''c'' in ''deceive'', ''ceiling'', ''receipt'', ''ceilidh'' The rule is very well known; Edward Carney calls it "this supreme, and for many people solitary, spelling rule".〔 However, the short form quoted above has many common exceptions; for example: * ''ie'' after ''c'': ''species'', ''science'', ''sufficient'' * ''ei'' not preceded by ''c'': ''seize'', ''weird'', ''vein'', ''their'', ''foreign'', ''feisty'', ''heist Many more exceptions are listed below. The proportion of exceptions can be reduced by restricting application of the rule based on the sound represented by the spelling. Two common restrictions are: * excluding cases where the spelling represents the "long a"〔The labels "long a" and "long e", discredited among educators, are used here as umbrella terms for multiple lexical sets and diaphonemes.〕 sound (the lexical sets of FACE and perhaps SQUARE ). This is commonly expressed by continuing the rhyme "or when sounding like A, as in neighbor or weigh" * including only cases where the spelling represents the "long e"〔 sound (the lexical sets of FLEECE and perhaps NEAR and happY ). Some authorities deprecate the rule as having too many exceptions to be worth learning.〔〔〔〔 ==History== The mnemonic (in its short form) is found as early as 1866, as a footnote in ''Manual of English Spelling'',〔 Laurie's book erroneously lists ''conscience'', ''seine'', ''seize'', and ''seizure'' under "ei" rather than under "exceptions". 〕 edited by schools inspector James Stuart Laurie from the work of a Tavistock schoolmaster named Marshall. Michael Quinion surmises the rhyme was already established before this date.〔 An 1834 manual states a similar rule in prose; others in 1855 and 1862 use different rhymes. Many textbooks from the 1870s on use the same rhyme as Laurie's book.〔 The restriction to the "long e" sound is explicitly made in the 1855 and 1862 books, and applied to the "I before E except after C" rhyme in an 1871 manual. Mark Wainwright's FAQ posting on the alt.usage.English newsgroup characterises this restricted version as British. The restriction may be implicit, or may be explicitly included as an extra line such as "when the sound is e" placed before〔 or after〔 the main part of the rhyme. A longer form excluding the "long a" sound is found in Rule 37 of Ebenezer Cobham Brewer's 1880 ''Rules for English Spelling'', along with a list of the "chief exceptions": :The following rhymes contain the substance of the last three rules : — ::i before e, ::Except after c, ::Or when sounded as "a," ::As in ''neighbour'' and ''weigh''. "Dr Brewer" is credited as the author by subsequent writers quoting this form of the rhyme, which became common in American schools.〔 ''A Dictionary of Modern English Usage'' discusses "i before e except after c". Henry Watson Fowler's original 1926 edition called the rule "very useful", restricting it to words with the "long e" sound, stating further that "words in which that sound is not invariable, as ''either'', ''neither'', ''inveigle'', do not come under it", and calling ''seize'' "an important exception". The entry was retained in Ernest Gowers's 1965 revision. Robert Burchfield rewrote it for the 1996 edition, stating 'the rule can helpfully be extended "except when the word is pronounced with "', and giving a longer list of exceptions, including words excluded from Fowler's interpretation. In 1932 Leonard B. Wheat examined the rules and word lists found in various American elementary school spelling books. He calculated that, of the 3,876 words listed, 128 had ''ei'' or ''ie'' in the spelling; of these, 83 conformed to I-before-E, 6 to except-after-C, and 12 to sounded-like-A. He found 14 words with ''i-e'' in separate syllables, and 2 with ''e-i'' in separate syllables. This left 11 "irregular" words: 3 with ''cie'' (''ancient, conscience, efficiency'') and 8 with ''ei'' (''either, foreign, foreigner, height, leisure, neither, seize, their''). Wheat concluded, "If it were not for the fact that the jingle of the rule makes it easy to remember (although not necessarily easy to apply), the writer would recommend that the rule be reduced to '''I'' usually comes before ''e'',' or that it be discarded entirely". 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「I before E except after C」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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