Re: "ex before consonant > e" non-rule( was: Sensible passives (was: confession: roots))

In a message dated 5/10/01 12:19:27 PM, ray.brown@FREEUK.COM writes:

[snip]

<< Fairly obviously, it was the unwarranted extension of this rule to ex/e by
post-Renaissance grammarians that led to the fiction of the "ex before
consonant > e rule".  We could've told them natlangs are rarely as neat as
that   :) >>

    Oops!  Should've read this first; I would've never responded.

-David