History of the English language (0)

Suppletion
Present in languages of different families . Present in Old, Middle and Modern English , though the general tendency is towards more regularity/iconicity so the number of suppletive forms has decreased.In the text: goon – to go wenden - to turn
Gan was suppletive in Old English , past form: eode.Eode was supplanted by went (past form of wenden) at the end of the Middle English period .To wend has survived in Modern English in phrases such as to wend one’s way, we wended homewards (ironic usage ).
Thus: suppletivity- suppletion – different parts of one and the same paradigm come from what were originally different paradigms (different words with close meanings or words in different but close dialects).Suppletion embraces verbs , adjectives, nouns .
Be – was/were –been (Old English beon/wesan)
(am, art, is, are); in Old English some suppletive
forms were used parallel to one another )
Good –better – best
Bad – worse – worst
Much – more – most
Little – less – least
Estonian: hea – parem (cf “paras” – fitting , in Finnish “the best” - metonymical link ), palju - rohkem
Finnish: mennä (to go), lähteä (to leave)
Estonian: minema, mine, lähen, läksin
French : aller , je vais/ nous allons, ira (future)
Russian : chelovek –ljudi, French: personne-
gens, English: person – persons/people
byt’ – est’
hodit’ –idti – shol, shla.
horoshij – luchij Essentially the same words suppletive in various languages, including non- related ones. The most common words (‘good’, ‘to be’, ‘to go’, ‘much’, “people”, etc).
General principle: the more frequently used a word, the more one can “ afford ” it to be irregular/non-iconic. Suppletion perhaps the most drastic form of irregularity/iconicity), covers