Awake... Awoke... Awaked ???

[whywouldi]

My daughter has just started learning the irregular verbs in her English (second language) class and it seems that the past participle of the verb to awake is now "awaked". Is this new and part of a reform to simplify English ? and do you find it strange yourselves ?

French grammarians have also started a reform and I feel I don't own my language anymore.

 

[sr71plt]

My daughter has just started learning the irregular verbs in her English (second language) class and it seems that the past participle of the verb to awake is now "awaked". Is this new and part of a reform to simplify English ? and do you find it strange yourselves ?

French grammarians have also started a reform and I feel I don't own my language anymore.

"awaked" was an acceptable alternative in Webster's back at least to the seventh edition (1963), so it's hardly a new usage. But "awoken" has been the preferred Webster's usage back at least that far. So, it's your daughter's teacher who has changed, not the dictionary--at least in U.S. style.

 

[snoopercharmbrights]

My daughter has just started learning the irregular verbs in her English (second language) class and it seems that the past participle of the verb to awake is now "awaked". Is this new and part of a reform to simplify English ? and do you find it strange yourselves ?

French grammarians have also started a reform and I feel I don't own my language anymore.

Your (and the teacher's) confusion is because there are two separate routes into the modern English for the verbs which have become "to wake" and "to waken", either of which can take the preposition "a" as a prefix.

They arrived in Old English as the strong verb represented only in the past tense wōc corresponding to Old Norse verb represented by past participle vakinn awake; also partly from Old English weak verb wacian = Old Frisian wakia, Old Saxon wakon, Old High German wahhēn, -ōn (German wachen), from Germanic from Indo-European.

The Oxford English Dictionary lists:

awake verb. Past tense awoke, awaked (obsolete); past participle awoke, awoken, awaked.

Thus it is not that the past participle of the verb to awake is now "awaked" but it was, many centuries ago.

As to the usage in the former colonies across the Atlantic, that is a mystery beyond my comprehension, but I would point out that they still use many forms which the OED regards as obsolete in the Queen's English, for example "gotten".

 

[sunandshadow]

I'd use awakened, myself.

 

[butters]

but why are they bringing back an obsolete and, quite frankly, ugly past participle? what's that all about then

 

[whywouldi]

Thank you snoopercharmbrights for your complete answer. What would be a normative dictionnary for the English Language ? In French, we have the "dictionnaire de l'académie" which establishes the reference for all.

 

[sr71plt]

Snooper's answer is only "complete" for you if you and your child's teacher are British. It's quite simple if you are Americans. Either form is correct, but in U.S. market publishing, at least, the preferred authority (the latest edition of Webster's Collegiate) prefers awoken.

If you are American, operating within the American context, there's really no reason to let British rules, which are so much more convoluted, mess you up.

 

[whywouldi]

If you are American, operating within the American context, there's really no reason to let British rules, which are so much more convoluted, mess you up.

I'm French-Canadian so I'm ambivalent about the rules, as we have been an English colony for so long

 

[butters]

I'm French-Canadian so I'm ambivalent about the rules, as we have been an English colony for so long

if there's ever a conflict, opt for elegance is my advice. awaked just sounds so wrong.

 

[snoopercharmbrights]

Thank you snoopercharmbrights for your complete answer. What would be a normative dictionnary for the English Language ? In French, we have the "dictionnaire de l'académie" which establishes the reference for all.

We do not have an "acadamie" as a repository of the official language. There are two main ones The Oxford English Dictionary and Chambers Dictionary.

The OED is available online at http://www.askoxford.com/?view=uk but only in the Compact version (240,000 words).

Chambers 21st Century Dictionary is available online http://www.chambersreference.com/dict/external/site/main/lookup_tools.htm and is the norm for crosswords in the UK but has only 75,000 words. They charge you to access the full Chambers Dictionary of 170,000 words.

I have the Shorter Oxford installed on my computer with 170,000 words also.

The full OED (over 500,000 words) is available (in 20 volumes) or on CD-ROM but I don't have a price.

 

[whywouldi]

Thank you all for your answers !