30 November 2012

i before e except after c exceptions

The one I always remember is weird, but it turns out there are many exceptions to the rule "i before e except after c".



Here is a list:
beige, cleidoic, codeine, conscience, deify, deity, deign,
dreidel, eider, eight, either, feign, feint, feisty,
foreign, forfeit, freight, gleization, gneiss, greige,
greisen, heifer, heigh-ho, height, heinous, heir, heist,
leitmotiv, neigh, neighbor, neither, peignoir, prescient,
rein, science, seiche, seidel, seine, seismic, seize, sheik,
society, sovereign, surfeit, teiid, veil, vein, weight,
weir, weird


Also:
This list could obviously be extended by adding more derivatives of Latin "scire", and by adding inflected forms of some of the basic words listed. The list has "conscience", "prescient", and "science", but there are also, for example, "omniscient" and "nescient". To "eight" could be added "eighty", "eighteen", and "eighth". And the list could be greatly extended by adding the plurals of all words ending in "cy".

(Is someone going to cite a word ending in "cy" that doesn't form its plural with "cies"? I can't think of any at the moment, given that I'm excluding capitalized words from my discussion.)

With regard to the extension added by some people for "neighbor" and "weigh", and the fact that this is only a start toward covering all the sounds of "ei", I have broken down my list according to the six different sounds "ei" had in that list. In doing so I have excluded cases where the "ei" or "ie" was not a digraph. Here is the list as so reorganized:

It seems the exceptions almost outweigh the rule. But I often fiend it useful to remember when writing words like receive, retrieve etc.

Sources:
http://alt-usage-english.org/I_before_E.html

23 November 2012

shortstraw waterworks lyrics

One of my facebook friends posted this video on his timeline.
It features beautiful music and poignant scenes of the relationship between father and daughter.

I was disappointed that I could not find the lyrics.

ShortStraw is a South African band with facebook, myspace, soundcloud and boom.com presence.

05 November 2012

Deum fortem viuum

This last weekend I visited a friend who had the most exquisite (and by her account expensive) picture in her house. It was a framed piece of vellum with the Latin words:

Deum fortem vivum: quando veniam & apparebo ante faciem Dei.
Fuerunt mihi lacrimæ meæ panes die ac nocte: dum dicitur mihi quotidie: Ubi est Deus tuus?
Hæc recordatus sum, & effudi in me animam meam: quoniam transibo in locum tabernaculi admirabilis, usque ad donum Dei: 
In voce exultationis 




The font and the faint lines however made it difficult to read and transcribe correctly. I did however, after searching for several similar phrases get to the source and the English translation:

It is part of Psalms 42:3-5 (although the Latin numbering indicates 41)

the strong living God. When will I draw close and appear before the face of God?
My tears have been my bread, day and night. Meanwhile, it is said to me daily: “Where is your God?”
These things I have remembered; and my soul within me, I have poured out. For I will cross into the place of the wonderful tabernacle, all the way to the house of God, with a voice of exultation