Re: Irregularity in human languages (was Re: irregular conlangs)

On Fri, 1 Oct 1999, John Cowan wrote:

>
> "Dive" along with "shit" and "twig" (comprehend) are oddball in that
Twig: I like that - I'll have to keep it in mind.  Seems to be derived
from Irish (tuigim).

> they have recently become strong, probably because of analogies.
> So the strong conjugation is not *utterly* non-productive,
> just *mostly* non-productive.  Children do say "goed", but also
> "brang" for the preterite of "bring".
We used to have snew and blunk as well.

> > So the only two I can't explain (that I saw) were "breed" and "sweep".
> > I suppose "sweep" could maybe be a little-kid verb.
>
> Originally "sweep" was strong (OE "sweop", "swep", "gesweopan" IIRC),
> but got a superfluous dental ending in ME. In some dialects, where final /t/
> is weak or missing, it has reverted to strong:  "swep'".  The same
> story with "leap" and (I think) "dream".
I spell all of them with a -t, but only pronounce the -t in dreamt.  Well,
actually -pt.

Padraic.

>
> --
> John Cowan                                   cowan@ccil.org
>        I am a member of a civilization. --David Brin
>