SNUCK? YUCK!

If I'm not mistaken, "snuck" started as a southernism; I don't think I heard it growing up in Minnesota, or if I did it was as an informal joke, quickly corrected among adults. Let's see, "sneak", "sneaked", "sneaked", right? But you're right, "snuck" seems to be gaining currency. Is it because it sounds like some other verb?

What I mean is that a few of the Germanic "strong" verbs seem to be losing one of their forms. The principle parts of "drink" are "drink", "drank", "drunk", but some people seem to be forgetting "drank" and just saying "I drunk some of it". The same thing is happening to "sink"; instead of "sank" in the past tense, quite a few people think the past tense is "sunk". And not just some but most people seem to have forgotten all about "stank"; they think the play stunk, which is just wrong. In fact, they're conjugating "stink" (and sometimes "sink" and "drink") like "sting" instead of like "sing".

What I'm wondering is whether "sneak" is being conjugated some some other verb that "sneak" reminds them of. I just can't think what it might be.

Or maybe this is just what happens to such verbs. We constantly hear "think" and "thunk", "take" and "tuck", "bring" and "brung", "drove" and "druv". Maybe it's just the same thing happening to "sneak" and "snuck".

Although *snoke / *snoken makes much more sense than snuck, by analogy with speak and break.

*She quietly snoke up on her opponant.
*I had already snoken out of the meeting by the time the firecracker popped.

IrritableEnglishSpeaker said:

What's the deal with SNUCK for the past tense of sneak? SNUCK sounds like something that comes out of one's nose. I thought the word "sneak" was used this way:
I (you, he/she/it, we, you, they) sneaked---
I have (will have/would have/could have) sneaked---

I agree with you. Probably many of the same people who think "drug" is the past tense of "drag."

To get back to one of Irritable's original questions (the distinction between "bring" and "take"), I'm not sure there is one. For example …

I could bring a friend to a party.
But I could also take a friend to a party.

I'd feel grammatically correct either way. Likewise …

I could bring a snack to a party.
But I could also take a snack to a party.

Doesn't seem to be any difference to me, whether what I bring is a person or a thing. If there's any diff, it might involve which person you're communicating your intentions to. I would tell the host "Yes, I'll bring (whatever) to your party." But I might tell some 3rd party "I'm taking (whatever) to the party." But really, either works for me.

I have no idea if there are any substantial grammatical issues here. Comments welcome.