On 2008-02-03 01:52, Rick McCallister wrote:
> bring, brang, brung
> How did it arise?
The analogical attraction of a particularly robust subtype of strong
verb. OE had at least the following Class IIIa STRONG verbs (in this
case "strong" is no misnomer!):
<clingan>, <cringan> 'yield', <gringan> 'sink down', <singan>,
<slingan>, <springan>, <stingan>, <swingan>, <twingan> 'press', <þingan>
'determine', <þringan> 'crowd', <wringan>
(not to mention the similar series of <drincan>, <stincan>, etc.).
On the other hand, there were just two weak verbs with /C(C)ing-/ roots,
<bringan/bro:hte> and <hringan/hringde> (at least I can't recall any
other examples). <hringan> (later <ringen>) shows analogical "strong"
forms (rang ~ rong/i-rungen) already in Early Middle English; the older
dental preterite was no longer used in Late ME and ring/rang/rung
paradigm became solidly established. Only <bring> was then left as the
solitary odd man out, so little wonder that in Modern English times
there have been attempts to press it into the sing/sang/sung pattern. As
new speakers learn how to conjugate the "-ing verbs", they are likely to
overgeneralise in favour of the majority pattern.
Piotr