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> 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 "g
by 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 agoWritten 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 agoAt 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).