Читать книгу The Grammar of English Grammars - Goold Brown - Страница 143

The final y of a primitive word, when preceded by a consonant, is generally changed into i before an additional termination: as, merry, merrier, merriest, merrily, merriment; pity, pitied, pities, pitiest, pitiless, pitiful, pitiable; contrary, contrariness, contrarily.

EXCEPTIONS.—1. This rule applies to derivatives, but not to compounds: thus, we write merciful, and mercy-seat; penniless, and pennyworth; scurviness, and scurvy-grass; &c. But ladyship and goodyship, being unlike secretariship and suretiship; handicraft and handiwork,[116] unlike handygripe and handystroke; babyship and babyhood, unlike stateliness and likelihood; the distinction between derivatives and compounds, we see, is too nice a point to have been always accurately observed. 2. Before ing or ish, the y is retained to prevent the doubling of i: as, pity, pitying; baby, babyish. 3. Words ending in ie, dropping the e by Rule 9th, change the i into y, for the same reason: as, die, dying; vie, vying; lie, lying.