5 ms·

Presumably, new irregular verbs used to appear, but no longer do. Groups of speakers are less isolated, we have a standardized written language, and demarcation

by bdr 12y ago

Presumably, new irregular verbs used to appear, but no longer do. Groups of speakers are less isolated, we have a standardized written language, and demarcations between languages are clearer.

ketralnis 12y ago
> Presumably, new irregular verbs used to appear, but no longer do Why not? Have now we invented all of the words we need, but hadn't yet invented "seen" or "got" in 1200 AD? Then why would it stop now, instead of in 1200 AD? > we have a standardized written language But we've had written language for much longer than English has been around
- dllthomas 12y ago
  Written language has become more prominent, recorded language has been introduced, and more of us experience some formal instruction in what the rules are. Those seem all like reasons new words are more likely to conform to the rules.
- lkbm 12y ago
  > But we've had written language for much longer than English has been around We didn't have standardized spelling, a majority of speakers who could also read and write, or formal grammar education.
- taejo 12y ago
  At one time, the "irregular" verbs were regular: English (or rather Proto-Germanic, the common ancestor language of English, German, Swedish, etc.) had two classes of regular verbs, strong and weak, and newly invented verbs could be added to either class. However, the strong class over time became somewhat obsolete and irregular, and is now relatively closed to adding new members (though not completely: sneak/snuck, dive/dove and shit/shat are relatively new additions -- certainly long post-dating the irregularization).
Cushman 12y ago
It's (supposedly) pronunciation changes that cause irregular words, right? You start with a regular rule, pronunciation of all words change so that the rule no longer works, all the uncommon words quickly regularize on a new rule, and what's left is irregular. It's been a while since my last linguistics class, but that seems like the natural result of words retaining their pronunciation roughly according to how often they're used. That sounds like a continuous process we should expect to slow as pronunciation change slows (due to recorded media), but not necessarily to stop at some cut-off point.
legulere 12y ago
New irregular verbs didn't appear, but new strong verbs. It's just that the strong verbs turned into irregular ones.

by bdr 12y ago

Presumably, new irregular verbs used to appear, but no longer do. Groups of speakers are less isolated, we have a standardized written language, and demarcations between languages are clearer.

ketralnis 12y ago

> Presumably, new irregular verbs used to appear, but no longer do Why not? Have now we invented all of the words we need, but hadn't yet invented "seen" or "got" in 1200 AD? Then why would it stop now, instead of in 1200 AD? > we have a standardized written language But we've had written language for much longer than English has been around

dllthomas 12y ago
Written language has become more prominent, recorded language has been introduced, and more of us experience some formal instruction in what the rules are. Those seem all like reasons new words are more likely to conform to the rules.
lkbm 12y ago
> But we've had written language for much longer than English has been around We didn't have standardized spelling, a majority of speakers who could also read and write, or formal grammar education.
taejo 12y ago
At one time, the "irregular" verbs were regular: English (or rather Proto-Germanic, the common ancestor language of English, German, Swedish, etc.) had two classes of regular verbs, strong and weak, and newly invented verbs could be added to either class. However, the strong class over time became somewhat obsolete and irregular, and is now relatively closed to adding new members (though not completely: sneak/snuck, dive/dove and shit/shat are relatively new additions -- certainly long post-dating the irregularization).

Cushman 12y ago

It's (supposedly) pronunciation changes that cause irregular words, right? You start with a regular rule, pronunciation of all words change so that the rule no longer works, all the uncommon words quickly regularize on a new rule, and what's left is irregular. It's been a while since my last linguistics class, but that seems like the natural result of words retaining their pronunciation roughly according to how often they're used. That sounds like a continuous process we should expect to slow as pronunciation change slows (due to recorded media), but not necessarily to stop at some cut-off point.

legulere 12y ago

New irregular verbs didn't appear, but new strong verbs. It's just that the strong verbs turned into irregular ones.