03 Oct 12, 05:54AM
Well, while they've been used in english for a long time, neither "weird" nor "ancient" are actually english, they are borrowed.
"Being" follows a different rule; it is literally "be" + "ing" as you would use for "falling" or any other nounification of a verb.
The words that follow the "I" before "E" rule are native english root words. The "except for words like neighbor and weigh" part of the rule is there to recognize the existence of loan words and that they don't necessarily follow the rules of spelling native english words.
Not modifying loan words to fit the rules of english is a quirk. I rather like the hodge-podge that is english and dislike the non-standard-ness of it at the same time. English is kind of like the opposite of "NewSpeak;" instead of destroying words and limiting thought, it welcomes the creation of new words and the usage of foreign words as equals to native words with a potential to expand the possibilities of thought.
I'll stop, getting off topic; and I don't think I should go off into a rant about prescriptivism and non-prescriptivism.
"Being" follows a different rule; it is literally "be" + "ing" as you would use for "falling" or any other nounification of a verb.
The words that follow the "I" before "E" rule are native english root words. The "except for words like neighbor and weigh" part of the rule is there to recognize the existence of loan words and that they don't necessarily follow the rules of spelling native english words.
Not modifying loan words to fit the rules of english is a quirk. I rather like the hodge-podge that is english and dislike the non-standard-ness of it at the same time. English is kind of like the opposite of "NewSpeak;" instead of destroying words and limiting thought, it welcomes the creation of new words and the usage of foreign words as equals to native words with a potential to expand the possibilities of thought.
I'll stop, getting off topic; and I don't think I should go off into a rant about prescriptivism and non-prescriptivism.