Things are getting hectic over at Language Log, in a conversation about the rise of "snuck" instead of "sneaked." (The chart at left: usage in the Times over the last few decades.) Notes one commenter: "Seems 'received' grammar has little stomach for regression toward non-standard false strong verbs." FOREALS YO!
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
22
What shrunk their brains?
Mad Cow.
What has shrunk their brains?
Honey, you shrank my joke. :(
Irregardless, what's interesting to me is that the aggregate use of sneaked + snuck has doubled in 25 years.
No problem.
+1
The popularity of sneaked/snuck seems to have boomed at roughly the same time as our economy peaked, and then crashed.
What I mean to imply is, there has been more sneakiness in this particular economic bubble than any other. Also, it is roughly coordinate with the debut of The Hills.
Snuck!
My definition for doubting people who say 'Snuck isn't a word??' is: [making the sound of noisy gross wet nose inhalation]
The past tense of spank is still 'spunk,' though, right?
It's more of a 'cause-and-effect' relationship.
hahahaha *CALL ME*
As long as "conversate" isn't a word, I think we're still ok.
I don't understand 'commentator'. Why not commenter? Which are we???
This is the one piece of misused language I cannot abide. I reflexively corrected my father-in-law on Christmas morning last year.
i would just like to announce that the past tense of "spit", is "spat".
and for "shit" is "shat"
exactly.
Agghhh - I wrote a short last night and used the sentence:
The next day I snuck back into the house when my parents weren’t there...
I feel like a crim now. Mind you, is this the same as using sat for sitting?
jamesbent.com/blog - 1000+ word offbeat fiction shorts
Ah, but what about the past-pluperfect form, "snucken"? Is that on the rise too?
Go feaked yourself.
I love snuck, may it prosper and replace sneaked. What I hate is the opposite case, when strong verb parts d i s a p p e a r . People get all teared up about the soon-extinguished language of some bone-through-the-septum tribe like it was the Last Speaker of Etruscan or something, but what about the Last Conjugator of English? Is there no grief for him? And when was the last time you heard somebody use the word "sank"? I wonder what the NY Times stats would tell us about the use of "sunk" as the preterite of "sink."