to suggest "taxt" as the past participle of the verb "to text"?

[Flannelmcpoppety]

I find it unsettling when people use "text" as the past participle ("yesterday I text my mum").

But single syllable verbs ending in t or d often have irregular past participles. Eg "texted" or "sitted" or "hitted" is a bit of a mouthful.

I think an "e" often gets turned into an "a" in these situations.

So, whaddaya reckon, MN? "Taxt"? If we all use it, it'll definitely catch on.

[Sallygoroundthemoon]

YABU. Taxt is ghastly and sounds like taxed. Texted is just fine and unless you have speech issues, is not exactly hard to say.

[PissOffJournalists]

I say texted. Why do we have fitted and flitted but not hitted or sitted, does anyone know?

[Lighteningirll]

I sent you a message, I've messaged you, I've texted you, can you text me that, he text me yesterday. They all work: I taxt you sounds wrong, looks wrong if this is a vote mines a resounding No (not a complete sentence thank you. Thick) I think I'm a little bit in love with Flirtle but I also like texted not sure if the two are compatible and I have just added texted to my kindle.dictionary I may be strange.

[BadgersNadgers]

"I taxt you last night“ sounds like a conversation with David Walliams in full on creep mode.
I see no problem with "texted"

[BadgersNadgers]

"I text you last night" sounds like a conversation with Dappy.

[TheWitchesofIzalith]

I'm sorry to dumb this down somewhat after firtlebunny's erudite posts, but...
'Texted' sounds right to me. 'I text you yesterday' really grates, it sounds wrong.
And 'taxt' sounds just as wrong.
Fixed, mixed, texted. Makes sense to me.

[firtlebunny]

And sorry - I meant to add that the answer to the general question about when the 'e' in the '-ed' regular preterite ending was elided seems to be during the sixteenth century. Some forms were preserved beyond that or were used (as above) according to scansion; some survive to today, e.g to preserve the distinction between learned (acquired knowledge) and learn-ed (wise, academically qualified); or blessed (anointed, gifted) and bless-ed (holy, sacred).

[firtlebunny]

And this one from Henry VI part 2, Act III, scene 2, has the two forms a few lines apart.

A plague upon them! wherefore should I curse them?
Would curses kill, as doth the mandrake's groan,
I would invent as bitter-searching terms,
As curst, as harsh and horrible to hear,
Deliver'd strongly through my fixed teeth,
With full as many signs of deadly hate,
As lean-faced Envy in her loathsome cave:
My tongue should stumble in mine earnest words;
Mine eyes should sparkle like the beaten flint;
Mine hair be fixed on end, as one distract;
Ay, every joint should seem to curse and ban:
And even now my burthen'd heart would break,
Should I not curse them. Poison be their drink!

[firtlebunny]

I was looking into the question about Shakespeare. But on the way I found these:

www.ling.upenn.edu/~kroch/hist-pdf/taylor-eng.pdf

english.stackexchange.com/questions/4386/origin-of-different-past-tenses-for-verbs-with-the-same-endings

I'm reminded of two other factors that affect the conjugation of verbs in English: a) newer verbs tend to be weak; and b) when a noun starts being used as a verb, as here, the verb tends to be weak.

So those factors further militate for weak conjugation. The only thing I can find unusual about this verb that might warrant special treatment is that it happens to end in -xt.

As for Shakespeare, he spells the past tense of fix either "fixed" or "fix'd". This is All's Well That Ends Well, Act 1, scene 1:

One that goes with him: I love him for his sake;
And yet I know him a notorious liar,
Think him a great way fool, solely a coward;
Yet these fixed evils sit so fit in him,
That they take place, when virtue's steely bones
Look bleak i' the cold wind: withal, full oft we see
Cold wisdom waiting on superfluous folly.

And this is the same scene:

So show her merit, that did miss her love?
The king's disease—my project may deceive me,
But my intents are fix'd and will not leave me.

These are pentameters (five stresses per line), so we can discern the likely pronunciation from the scansion. Most of the examples I found, irrespective of spelling, don't scan if "fixed" is two syllables. But this one

And our air shakes them passing scornfully:
Big Mars seems bankrupt in their beggar'd host
And faintly through a rusty beaver peeps:
The horsemen sit like fixed candlesticks,
With torch-staves in their hand; and their poor jades
Lob down their heads, dropping the hides and hips,

(Henry V, Act IV, scene 2) only scans if pronounced "fix-ed". So artistic license obviously applies.

[Flannelmcpoppety]

It's being created already though, isn't it, Katie? I think it's kind of cool to witness an irregular verb coming into being. And hence I don't get annoyed or think it's wrong when people say "text" (for the past tense) even though I do notice it and it doesn't sound right to me.

Does anyone know if worlds ending in -x (fix, mix etc) have always been pronounced fix'd and mix'd etc in their past (praeterite?) forms? In Shakespeare you get it both ways, don't you? Fix'd and also fix-ed (can't do the little accent on my phone).

[KatieKaboom]

Thou shalt not create any more fecking irregular verbs.

ESPECIALLY not homophones of existing ones.

[YvaineStormhold]

😍 at flirtle

[HandyWoman]

firtle I think I luffs you.

[Boogers]

I still struggle to use the word 'text' as a verb so it's a no from me, but I know I'm in the minority.

[Andrewofgg]

The past participle should be "toxten". I have toxten twelve people about this . . .

[littlemonkey5]

I would personally stick to "I sent a text" rather than taxt...... I am taxed far too much as it is.......

[AlmostFreeMo]

I think just saying I sent a text solves the problem

Anyhow, I think texts will become redundant soon enough, because there are so many other forms of short messaging now (iMessage, messenger, Twitter, whatsapp, hangouts etc.) so you hear more variations now than before.

[DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen]

What's wrong with texted?

[Flannelmcpoppety]

Firtle, I think I love you.

And accept IABU.

Isn't it interesting that people do say "text" though? Naturally? (I might stick with texted though).

[AugustaFinkNottle]

No, it sounds exactly like "taxed". It's perfectly easy to say texted.

[firtlebunny]

Turning an 'e' into an 'a' in these situations does happen in Germanic languages and the technical term for it is an Ablaut grade.

It's characteristic (but not universal) in the preterite forms of our strong verbs, which is to say verbs that don't add "-ed" (in English) or "-te" (in German) when making the preterite. For example sing - sang, or (the analogy you are following) beget - begat. Not always does a strong preterite involve Ablaut, as think - thought (a different kind of vowel change) or bet - bet (no vowel change).

The problem with text -taxt is that the vowel is followed by a consonant cluster (-xt). This is not a usual consonant cluster occurring at word ends in English, because it comes from a Latin loan word, textum (meaning a web or woven fabric). But strong preterites don't have Ablaut grades in similar phonological contexts which do occur commonly in English (short vowel followed by consonant cluster). I can't think of any other English verbal infinitives in '-xt', but all those ending '-x' are regular I think (fixed, waxed) and so are those ending '-st' (tested, invested) or '-ct' (injected, inflected).

On the basis of analogy with existing verbs therefore text should be regular, preterite and past participle texted. However it would be reasonable to argue that, there being no other infinitives in -xt, we could find it convenient to treat it as strong, if '-xted' were to be avoided on grounds of phonology (awkward to pronounce), rather than analogous to -st, -ct or -x verbs. But if it were strong it should not require an Ablaut grade, so should remain the same as the infinitive, text.

Therefore YABU.

[SaucyJack]

Tuxt.

[ABCAlwaysBeCunting]

FGS, 'texted' is hardly difficult.

[gleam]

Taxt - I like it. Texted is so clumsy it doesn't get used.