Strong/strange verbs and spoonerisms (was RE:Ungrammaticalization?)

FFlores wrote:
> Or worse, "read, read, read", or "lead, led, led".
Ah, and spelling only makes it worse.  It can sometimes be impossible to
tell whether /rid/ or /rEd/ is intended.  (Why, oh why, can't it be
spelt "red"?)

> I think I would have to carry a dictionary with me all the time
> to get those right. *Right now* I don't remember the correct forms.
For me, it's not too difficult (if I'm being careful), I just have to
remember "lay =3D transitive; lie =3D intransitive", but the fact that th=
e
past tense of "lie" is "lay" just really gets on my nerves sometimes.

> HA HA HA! I remember reading about this guy (Spooner, I guess) and some
> of his most famous (attested) phrases. Said to a newly married groom wh=
o
> wouldn't react: "Now it's kisstomary to cuss the bride."
My favorite is when he made a toast "to our queer dean", instead of "to
our dear queen"; and yes, the dean was rumored to be gay.

> BTW (and to justify this post) do you (pl.) have any spoonerisms
> in your conlangs? Attested ones, I mean.
I've sometimes accidentally used "lusaf=ED" for "lusaf=E1i" - "lusaf=ED" =
isn't
an attested word (tho it might be a poetic term), but if it meant
anything, it would mean "give birth" or perhaps "cause to give birth"
(impregnate?); lu- =3D causative, saf=ED =3D give birth or be born; while
lusaf=E1i means "create".  Granted, not exactly a humorous juxtaposition,
but that's the only one I've found so far.  And, it's not a spoonerism
since it's not a juxtaposition of segments or syllables.

--=20
"[H]e axed after eggys: And the goode wyf answerde, that she coude not
speke no Frenshe ... And then at last a nother sayd that he woulde haue
hadde eyren: then the goode wyf sayd that she vnderstood hym wel." --
William Caxton
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