Ee-sound spellings

The irregular spellings for the ee sound, create a rote-learning list of 457 words (the second longest after consonant doubling), with the different spellings often making no sense at all (e.g. speak speech, seize siege). Their irregularity is not due to influences from other languages. There was, for example, no need to give the French ‘recevoir’, an extra i (receive), or to end up with different spellings for proceed and precede.

Chaucer (1343-1400), who gave post-Norman English the spelling system which still forms the basis of the present one, spelt the ee-sound mainly with the open vowel method (kene, mene; leve, sleve; resoun, sesoun).
In the Chaucer texts available to us now, identical words sometimes have different spellings (bene/been, sene/seen) but this inconsistency may be due entirely to copying errors by scribes and printers. He wrote a poem to his scribe Adam in which he complains about the errors which he kept committing (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2004/jul/20/highereducation.books). Some copiers clearly had difficulty learning Chaucer’s newly created English spelling system.

The greatest dilution of spelling consistency for the ee-sound occurred in the 16th century - with the introduction of ea (mean, leave, reason). Gradually this new fashion became increasingly popular. Expanding its use to some words with short e as well (dread, feathers, early), made learning to read and write English much more difficult than with Chaucer’s simpler spellings (dred, fethers, erly).

Now the ee sound is spelt predictably only in the stressed endings of longer words:
agree, chimpanzee, degree, dungarees, employee, guarantee, interviewee, jamboree, jubilee, marquee, referee, refugee, settee, trustee.

Among the 457 unpredictable spellings for the ee sound, are 48 words with two spellings:
Bee/be, beech/beach, been/bean, beet/beat, breech/breach, cheep/cheap, creek/creak, deer/dear, discreet/discrete, eerie/eyrie, eve/eaves, feet/feat, flee/flea, freeze/frieze, jeans/genes, Greece/grease, heel/heal, hear/here, key/quay, leech/leach, leek/leak, meet/meat, need/knead, pee/pea, peace/piece, peek/peak, peel/peal, peer/pier, reed/read, reek/wreak, reel/real, sealing/ceiling, seamen/semen, see/sea , seem/seam, seen/scene, serial/cereal, sheer/shear, sheikh/chic, steel/steal, sweet/suite, tee/tea, teem/team, wee/we, week/weak, wheel/weal
+ (in UK English) geezer/geyser, leaver/lever.
Many other words with an ee sound have several meanings but just one spelling (lean, mean, seal), and some spellings for it have more than one pronunciation (lead, read, tear: leed/led, reed/red, teer/tair).

The other 361 words with an ee sound are spelt as follows.
Ee: beef, beer, beetle, between, bleed, bleep, breed, breeze, career, cheek, cheer, cheese, cheetah, creep, deed, deep, eel, exceed, feeble, feed, feel, fleece, fleet, geese, greed, green, greet, indeed, jeep, jeer, keel, keen, keep, kneel, meek, needle, peep, pioneer, preen, proceed, proceedings, proceeds, queen, queer, reef, screech, screen, seed, seek, seep, seesaw, sheep, sheet, sleek, sleep, sleet, sleeve, smithereens, sneer, sneeze, speech, speed, squeeze, steep, steeple, steer, street, succeed, sweep, sweet, teeth, teetotal, thirteen, tweed, tweezers, weed, weep, wheedle, wheeze, wildebeest.
Ea: appeal, beacon, bead, beak, beam, beard, beast, beaver, beneath, bleach, bleak, bleat, breathe, cease, cheat, clean, clear, colleague, conceal, congeal, cream, crease, creature, deal, dean, decrease, defeat, disease, dream, dreary, each, eager, eagle, ear, ease, east, Easter, eat, fear, feast, feature, freak, gear, gleam, glean, heap, heat, heath, heathen, heave, increase, lead, leaf, league, lean, leap, lease, leash, least, leave, meagre, meal, mean, measles, near, neat, ordeal, peach, peat, plead, please, pleat, preach, queasy, reach, really, reap, rear, reason, release, repeat, retreat, reveal, scream, seal, sear, season, seat, sheaf, sheath, smear, sneak, speak, spear, squeak, squeal, squeamish, steam, streak, stream, teach, teak, tear, tease, theatre, treacle, treason, treat, treaty, veal, wean, weary, weasel, weave, wheat, wreath, year, yeast, zeal.
Open e: he, me, she,
adhesive, arena, cafeteria, cathedral, cedar, chameleon, Chinese, comedian, compete, complete, concrete, convene, convenient, decent, demon, equal, era, even, evil, experience, exterior, extreme, female, fever, frequent, genie, genius, hero, hyena, imperial, inferior, ingredient, intermediate, legal, legion, lenient, material, medium, mere, meteor, meter, millipede, mysterious, obedient, period, peter, polythene, precede, previous, query, recent, recess, region, relay, scheme, sequence, sequin, series, serious, serum, species, sphere, stampede, strategic, superior, supreme, swede, tedious, theme, theory, these, torpedo, trapeze, vehicle, Venus, zero.
Open i: albino, antique, aubergine, bikini, clementine, fatigue, guillotine, machine, magazine, margarine, marine, mosquito, plasticine, police, prestige, ravine, regime, routine, sardine, suite, tambourine, tangerine, trampoline, unique, vaseline, pizza.
Ie: achieve, belief, believe, brief , chief, diesel, field, fiend, fierce, grief, grieve, hygienic, medieval, niece, pierce, priest, relief, relieve, shield, shriek, siege, thief, thieve, tier, wield, yield.
Ei: Caffeine, codeine, protein, seize, weir, weird,
conceive /coneit, deceive /deceit, receive /receipt.
Assorted irregulars: People; cathedral, secret; pizza, ski, souvenir, debris.