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[et] was the normal past tense of 'eat'; it was spelt either 'eat' or 'ate'. I don't know when the pronunciation [eit] ("ayt") came in for 'ate', but I'd guess very recently, later nineteenth century, and from the middle class in London, since [et] hasn't been fully displaced in either upper or lower class speech.
I don't know what the age/class distribution is in US or Aus/NZ: I _think_ I've heard [et] in Australia by older people but can't remember. Did they ever say [et] in old US films?
An edition of Spenser from around 1900 or a tad earlier actually glossed 'ate': it said simply 'did eat'. So the very spelling might be recent (in non-dialectal).
Entire Thread Subject Posted By Posted past tense of eat doc_comfort 02/01/01 08:09 AM Re: past tense of eat RhubarbCommando 02/01/01 10:25 AM Re: past tense of eat Bean 02/01/01 01:17 PM Re: past tense of eat wwh 02/01/01 03:43 PM Re: past tense of eat rkay 02/01/01 03:45 PM Re: past tense of eat Bingley 02/02/01 04:08 AM Re: past tense of eat Marty 02/02/01 04:16 AM Re: past tense of eat jmh 02/02/01 01:59 PM Re: past tense of eat maverick 02/02/01 02:13 PM Re: past tense of eat Fiberbabe 02/02/01 02:20 PM Re: past tense of eat NicholasW 02/06/01 11:15 AM Re: past tense of eat Capital Kiwi 02/07/01 06:50 AM Re: past tense of eat maverick 02/07/01 05:10 PM Re: past tense of eat Capital Kiwi 02/07/01 05:54 PM Re: past tense of eat Bobyoungbalt 02/01/01 03:52 PM Re: past tense of eat TEd Remington 02/01/01 06:41 PM Re: past tense of eat Fiberbabe 02/01/01 06:51 PM Re: past tense of eat Sparteye 02/01/01 07:10 PM Re: past tense of eat Bobyoungbalt 02/01/01 08:16 PM
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