Re: USAGE : English past tense and participle in -et

Quoting Tristan McLeay <zsau@...>:

> On Fri, 26 Dec 2003, Andreas Johansson wrote:
>
> > Lately, I've seen alot of people misspelling the past tense and passive
> > participle ending _-ed_ as **_-et_.
> >
> > Now, I'm wondering a) if this really is a phenomenon on the rise, or if
> I've
> > just for no known reason only suddenly have begun noticing it, and b) if it
> is
> > representative of some dialect merging /d/ and /t/ finally - intervocalic
> > merger of them is common enough, of course.
>
> Where? On the list or some other similarly self-conscious place? or in the
> general publick?
I don't think I've seen it here. I've seen it mostly on a number of internet
forums I frequent, where spelling quality varies wildly - from essentially
perfect to what can only be explained as caused by severe dyslexia. I've noted
this particular one from people whose spelling otherwise is pretty good, which
is why it intrigues me.

> And really -et? That seems odd, I would've expected -t
> (except after silent final -e, e.g. walkt/lopet).
Always _-et_, it seems.

> And after voiced
> consonants, vowels and t, or just after unvoiced consonants barring -t?
Who said they didn't do it after -t? I saw _notet_ and _locatet_ as late as
today! Whatever rules may govern it, it's got nothing to do with when -ed is
pronounced, in Standard 'lects, /t/, /d/ or /id/.

                                                           Andreas

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