User:Jnestorius/i before e except after c

Words in the left-hand columns obey the rule "I before E except after C"; those in the right-hand columns break it.

The green and red cells are the true and false instances of the restricted case in which the rule is most reliable, namely cases where the sound of the EI/IE grapheme is "EE": i.e. the lexical sets FLEECE, NEAR, or happY which spring from a common underlying archiphoneme (EE is the most unambiguous spelling for this archiphoneme: BEE, BEEF, BEER, CHEERFUL, COFFEE, COMMITTEE).

The thicker-bordered cells are words always pronounced with EE; the thinner borders have varying pronunciation.

The darker-bordered cells are for the broader codicil "or when sounded with A, as in neighbor or weigh". That version is misleading in particular with regard to spelling the PRICE vowel, where EI is more likely than IE except morpheme-finally.