From: utzoo!decvax!goutal
Newsgroups: net.followup
Title: weird
Article-I.D.: decvax.461
Posted: Tue Apr 12 11:21:55 1983
Received: Wed Apr 13 02:59:51 1983

It suddenly occurs to me why all these "exceptions" exist --
When I was taught the rule as a kid, it *included* a specification
of exceptions, to wit:
	'I' before 'E'
	except after 'C'
	and when sounded as 'A'
	as in "neighbor" and "weigh"
I suspect that not too long ago, most of the exceptions mentioned recently
were indeed pronounced as "a" or something similar.
With the advent of mass media, I think our pronunciations have been
normalizing a *lot* in the last, say, fifty years.
But what about "weird", you say;  surely that wasn't pronounced "wared"
or like "layered"?  Au contraire, I believe it was.  I can't remember
where I saw it, but I seem to remember having seen an antique spelling,
viz "weyrd", which certainly looks like it ought to rhyme with "layered",
sort of.  Of course, perhaps I saw it in the novel, and perhaps the
author had long wondered about how "weird" came to be the exception to
such great rule, and invented an etymology.  Perhaps the net.nlang folks
can help us?
-- Kenn (decvax!goutal)
P.S.	Yes, I know, it doesn't explain "financier".  Oh well.