[Ads-l] back-formed verb form of the day

[Herb Stahlke]

Two weak verbs that I can think of have developed faux-ablaut forms:  sneak/snuck/snuck and drag/drug/drug.  Both behave like weak verbs in that their preterite and participle forms are the same.  And they both go to the same central vowel not widely found in strong verbs for those two forms, aside from dig/dug/dug, which could be the analytical model for them since they all end in velar stops.

On December 19, 2021, at 4:21 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:

Tony Romo, announcer on Steelers-Titans game, Steelers have the ball on the
Titans' 1 yard line.  Romo and co-announcer Jim Nantz agree that a
quarterback sneak by Ben Rothlisberger is unlikely:

"Ben hasn't *quarterback-snuck* all year. Does he do it here?"

(In fact, he quarterback-snuck twice in a row, unsuccessfully and then
successfully.)

"To quarterback-sneak" is not that uncommon itself, but I don't think I've
encountered the strong (ablaut) past participle before.

LH

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org