I'm hoping someone can clear up a question for me. I am a speech-language pathologist in an elementary school. A colleague (a 3rd grade teacher) has repeatedly asked me over the years why 'speak' is spelled with 'ea' while 'speech' is spelled with 'ee.' I would love to be able to enlighten him with an answer before he retires at the end of this school year. Thanks

heh.

"The Vicissitude or Mutations, in the Superiour Globe, are no fit Matter, for this present Argument."
-Bacon

speech: Forms: α. OE–ME spræc, sprec, ME sprace, spræche. β. OE spæc, spec, ME spece, ME spæche ( spache, spiche), ME–15 speche (ME spieche), ME–15 spech, 15– speech, 15–16 speach, speache; Sc.15 speitche, 15–16 speiche.

Welcome donna22. May I ask you a word question in return? What is the difference between a speech pathologist and a logopedist?
I've been looking around and found a.o.
Speech pathologists or speech-language pathologists were formerly known as speech therapists
Isn't a logopedist also a speech therapist? (talking about vicissitudes)

Thanks for the word vicissitude tsuwm. I read a book where it regularly appears. Safes a search.

Someone like goofy might be able to come up with a better answer, but I would guess that when the spelling was locked in the pronunciation of the vowels in the two words was different. The spelling became regularized and then the vowel sounds came together. The sounds of the two words might have been something like /speək/ and /spe:tʃ/.

Actually, the vowel of both words was the same.

ee and ea generally had different pronunciations in Middle English, but speke and speche were pronounced with the same vowel. There was just some confusion about how to spell them. (I assume this confusion arose after the two different pronunciations represented by ee and ea merged, but I don't know.) Another word with similar confusion is complete/compleet/compleat. This is according to the awesome The History of English Spelling by Upward and Davidson.

Thanks, goofy. That sounds like a good book. There's certainly plenty of grist for its mill.

I've always wondered also about the spelling of these two
words. Thanks for your explanation. Really helps.

This is rather late, but. I reckon Donna either never looked in here again or...
From the Online Etym. Dict.:

speech
O.E. spæc "act of speaking, manner of speaking, formal utterance," variant of spræc, related to sprecan, specan "to speak" (see speak), from P.Gmc. *sprækijo (cf. Ger. Sprache "speech"). The spr- forms were extinct in English by 1200. Meaning "address delivered to an audience" first recorded 1580s. Speechify "talk in a pompous, pontifical way" first recorded 1723.

speak
O.E. specan, variant of sprecan "to speak" (class V strong verb; past tense spræc, pp. sprecen), from P.Gmc. *sprekanan (cf. O.S. sprecan, O.Fris. spreka, M.Du. spreken, O.H.G. sprehhan, Ger. sprechen "to speak," O.N. spraki "rumor, report"), cognate with L. spargere "to strew" (speech as a "scattering" of words; see sparse). The -r- began to drop out in Late West Saxon and was gone by mid-12c., perhaps from infl. of Dan. spage "crackle," in a slang sense of "speak" (cf. crack in slang senses having to do with speech, e.g. wisecrack, cracker, all it's cracked up to be). Rare variant forms without -r- also are found in M.Du. (speken) and O.H.G. (spehhan). Not the primary word for "to speak" in O.E. ("Beowulf" prefers maþelian, from mæþel "assembly, council," from root of metan "to meet;" cf. Gk. agoreuo "to speak," originally "speak in the assembly," from agora "assembly").

I think Goofy is one of those people who doesn't speak very frequently, but when he does we'd best listen. [nod of admiration e]

EDIT: tsuwm, I did note your post, but thought the contrast would be worth seeing.