Why is there no double e in lanceolate?
schwaThree of the five vowels in lanceolate are unstressed. The ear gets a blur and the fingers pick a letter.
heard aslanceelate
spelledlanceolate
saidLAN-see-uh-layt
The letters are c, e, o, l: lanceolate.
The ee of lanceelate is an honest attempt at the see sound that follows the c, but that sound is already accounted for by the single e, and the o after it is a separate syllable that the mouth has stopped bothering with. Two vowels are being heard as one.
Also filed here
lanceulate lanseolate lanceollate lanceolat lancealate lanceolute
Each one has a page of its own. All 7 spellings of lanceolate.