Irregular a-e and i-e

The a-e spelling (of ‘face, fate, flame’)
has quite a few exceptions too. It is least predictable when followed by the letter l (13 ale and 18 ail), with seven words having two spellings for that syllable:
Ale/ail, bale/bail, male/mail, pale/pail, sale/sail, tale/tail, whale/wail,   dale, female, gale, inhale, scale, stale,
assail, cocktail, detail, fail, hail, jail, prevail, rail, retail, snail, trail.

When the a-e/ai sound is followed by n, it is spelt mainly ain:
Abstain, again, ascertain, attain, brain, chain, chilblain, complain, contain, detain, drain, explain, gain, grain, obtain, , refrain, remain, retain, slain, sprain, stain, strain, sustain, train;
acquaint, ain’t, faint, paint, quaint, saint.
This subgroup has 16 exceptions, and five words have more than one spelling:
Crane, lane,  main/mane,  pain/pane,  plain/plane,  sane, membrane,  rain/reins/reign;  reindeer,  vain/vein,   skein;  
deign, feign, campaign, champagne.

Another 46 words all disobey the main a-e pattern in various ways:
Able, cable, cradle, fable, gable, ladle, sabre, stable, table
(cf. label)
Aid, made/maid, braid, laid, afraid, paid, raid.
Brake/break, stake/steak.
Aim, claim, exclaim, maim, proclaim.
Haste, paste, taste, waste/waist; place/plaice.
Daisy, praise, raise, raisin.
Ate/eight, bate/bait, grate/great, straight/straits, wait/weight,
fête, freight, traitor, waiter.
Faith,  neighbour.

The i-e spelling (of ‘file, fine, kite’)
is disobeyed by 82 words, but is unpredictable in a total of 103, because the use of ite/ight is completely random (22 v 22):
bite/bight, knight/night,  mite/might, rite/right/write, slight/ sleight(of hand),
ammonite, appetite, despite, dynamite, excite, ignite, invite, kite, polite, quite, recite, satellite, site, spite, termite, trite, unite, white,
blight, bright, fight, flight, fright, light, sight, tight, alight, delight, lightning, mighty,   fahrenheit, height, indict.
The words with -ight are all of Germanic origin, but those which have survived into modern German now have spellings which cause neither reading nor spelling problems: e.g. flight - Flug, fright – Furcht, light – Licht.

In 16 words with l and n there is nothing to show that the i is long:
child, mild, wild, whilst,
behind, bind, blind, find, grind, hind, kind, mind, ninth, pint, rind, wind.
This makes learning to read similar-looking words harder:
children, mildew, wilderness, wildebeest; hinder, kindle, windy (weather), window.
In the 16th century words ending with a d-sound were nearly all spelt with an extra –e (childe, wilde, finde). It would have been better not to delete it from words in which i has a long sound, if moving it where it should be (chiled, wiled, fined) seemed too drastic.
It is puzzling why 'nine lost its e in ‘ninth’, while ‘height’ was given a surplus e (cf. high).

Nineteen words break the i-e pattern in various ways:
Eye/I. Aisle, bible (cf. libel), bridle, choir, climb, disciple, eider-down, idle, island, kaleidoscope, resign, sign, scythe, stifle, trifle + (in UK English) either, neither.

In 25 English words (mainly less common ones, of Greek orgin) long i is spelt y, sometimes with omission or displacement of e as well;
Asylum, cycle, cypress, dyke, dynamic, dynamite, dynamo, hyacinth, hydrangea, hydrogen, hyena, hygrometer, hypothesis, nylon, paralyse, psychology, pylon, python, rhyme, scythe, style, thyroid, type, tyrant, tyre.
The use of y for i creates reading as well as spelling difficulties, because y can spell short i too:
Cycle/cyclical, type/typical, tyrant/tyranny.