texted

[Wilson Gray]

The first time that I heard "texted," on some TV drama or other, I
thought, Interesting. The double-ED PST is moving up in the world. And
I hadn't noticed that it was at all common, even among among
working-class white people. But it soon struck me that, since the word
is _text_, the PST *has* to be _texted_.

Now, _texted_ feels *correct* to me, though not quite *right*.

-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Mark Twain



On Wed, Mar 11, 2009 at 2:45 PM, Baker, John <JMB at stradley.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Â  Â  Â  "Baker, John" <JMB at STRADLEY.COM>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: texted
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Â  Â  Â  Â In writing, I use "text" as the base form and present tense, and
> I use "texted" as the past tense. Â When I am careful about
> pronunciation, I pronounce all of these as /tEkst/, but in ordinary
> speech I am pronounce any of them as /tEks/. Â I write the third person
> singular as "texts" and try to pronounce it as /tEksts/, although I have
> trouble with the /ksts/ combination.
>
> Â  Â  Â  Â I am interested in all comments and do not claim that this
> represents anything other than my personal idiosyncrasies.
>
>
> John Baker
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
> Of Arnold Zwicky
> Sent: Wednesday, March 11, 2009 2:24 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: texted
>
> On Mar 11, 2009, at 10:34 AM, John Baker wrote:
>
>>
>> Â  Â  Â  Â I recently was surprised to hear my adult nephew and niece
>> pronounce "texted" with two syllables. Â I am forced to admit the logic
>
>> of that pronunciation, since I pronounce "text" and "texted" as
>> homophones, but it still sounds weird to me.
>
> you're not alone; see
>
> http://arnoldzwicky.wordpress.com/2008/12/25/whats-the-past-tense-of-the
> -verb-text/
>
> but let me get this right: you write TEXTED but pronounce it /tEkst/?
> or do you just spell past /tEkst/ TEXT?
>
> what about the base form of the verb (as in "I like to text")? Â is this
> also /tEkst/? Â i ask this because it's been suggested to me by several
> people that some speakers with past /tEkst/ have analyzed the verb as
> having the stem /tEks/, so that /tEkst/ would just be the regular past.
> if so, the base form would be /tEks/ (spelled either TEX or TEXT), Â the
> present would be /tEks at z/ (possibly spelled TEXES, but maybe TEXTS), and
> the present participle would be /tEksIN/ (spelled with TEXING or
> TEXTING).
>
> i think that most people with past /tEkst/ have just moved the verb
> "text" into the "cut"/"put" class, with PST/PSP identical to the base
> form (and the non-3sg present form). Â  but there are other
> possibilities.
>
> arnold
>
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