"drug" and irregulation

[Leslie Decker]

Had to forward after mistaken posting. New message at bottom. 


Begin forwarded message:

> From: Leslie Decker <jsemlekkermeisje at gmail.com>
> Date: November 12, 2010 19:50:23 CST
> To: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at listserv.uga.edu>
> Subject: Re: "drug" and irregulation
> 

> On Nov 12, 2010, at 19:44, "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> 
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
>> Subject:      Re: "drug" and irregulation
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> 
>> At 11/12/2010 02:34 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>>>> Here Bush seems to be drugging in the irregular.
>>> 
>>> Why?  "Drug" as a strong past tense (or participle) of "drag" has
>>> been around a lot longer than either Bush.  I'd think this is just
>>> standard (or standard non-standard) Texas usage GWB picked up, not a
>>> case of a regular verb becoming irregular.  (Cf. snuck, clumb,...)  I
>>> have it, at least passively, in at least one context:  "Look what the
>>> cat drug in."
>> 
>> I guess I'm just too non-Texan ... and I should have researched
>> "drug" before suggesting it was new, or the trend.  Apologies.  (But
>> I was interested to hear that the regular to irregular flow exists
>> also -- I didn't know that
>> 
>> Joel
>> 
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> 
> I'm also not too certain that it isn't historically a strong verb. Cf
> Dutch dragen (past droeg) and German tragen (past trug). Both mean
> carry.

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