3 ms·

In an awesome paper [1] published in 2007, it was shown that irregular English verbs have been dying out (i.e., "regularized") at an incredibly precise and meas

by xefer 12y ago

In an awesome paper [1] published in 2007, it was shown that irregular English verbs have been dying out (i.e., "regularized") at an incredibly precise and measurable rate. The paper shows "how the rate of regularization depends on the frequency of word usage. The half-life of an irregular verb scales as the square root of its usage frequency: a verb that is 100 times less frequent regularizes 10 times as fast." [1] "Quantifying the evolutionary dynamics of language" by Erez Lieberman, Jean-Baptiste Michel, [...], and Martin A. Nowak http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2460562/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2460562/

legulere 12y ago
I recently felt that effect in an old norse class here in Germany. I had to translate brast into German. Bresta follows the 3rd class of strong verbs (old norse still has more or less rules for the strong verbs): bresta, brast, (brustum,) brostit - to burst, bursted, burst (archaic: to burst, brast, bursten) The same verb also exists in German: bersten, barst, geborsten However it's not that common today and the past tense is also extremely uncommon in speach. This led me inflect it weak (regular).
- peterfirefly 12y ago
  It is still there in Danish: http://ordnet.dk/ods/ordbog?query=briste&search=S%C3%B8g http://ordnet.dk/ods/ordbog?query=briste&search=S%C3%B8g "bristede" is the common past tense but "brast" is still used occasionally.
  - Rondom 12y ago
    It is indeed always interesting to see that it is not only the common words but also those little subleties, which are not noticable at the first glance, have survived in the different languages. http://tyda.se/search/brista?lang[0]=en&lang[1]=de&lang[2]=sv http://tyda.se/search/brista?lang[0]=en&lang[1]=de&lang[2]=s...
  - nisse72 12y ago
    In Swedish, "brast" is the common and AFAIK only past tense of this word. Brista brast brustit.

by xefer 12y ago

legulere 12y ago

I recently felt that effect in an old norse class here in Germany. I had to translate brast into German. Bresta follows the 3rd class of strong verbs (old norse still has more or less rules for the strong verbs): bresta, brast, (brustum,) brostit - to burst, bursted, burst (archaic: to burst, brast, bursten) The same verb also exists in German: bersten, barst, geborsten However it's not that common today and the past tense is also extremely uncommon in speach. This led me inflect it weak (regular).

peterfirefly 12y ago
It is still there in Danish: http://ordnet.dk/ods/ordbog?query=briste&search=S%C3%B8g http://ordnet.dk/ods/ordbog?query=briste&search=S%C3%B8g "bristede" is the common past tense but "brast" is still used occasionally.
- Rondom 12y ago
  It is indeed always interesting to see that it is not only the common words but also those little subleties, which are not noticable at the first glance, have survived in the different languages. http://tyda.se/search/brista?lang[0]=en&lang[1]=de&lang[2]=sv http://tyda.se/search/brista?lang[0]=en&lang[1]=de&lang[2]=s...
- nisse72 12y ago
  In Swedish, "brast" is the common and AFAIK only past tense of this word. Brista brast brustit.