Speken

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. An archaic past participle of the verb speak, meaning having uttered words aloud or expressed something in language
2. An old-fashioned form of the past participle of speak, used to describe words that have already been said
3. Archaic participial form of the verb to speak, indicating that talking or voicing has been completed

Etymology: Old English had "sprecan" for the infinitive and "gesprecen" for the past participle, with an "r" after the "p" in both. Middle English writers often spelled the form "speken", which suggests the "r" had already dropped out of pronunciation in many dialects. Chaucer's contemporaries used this shape for both the infinitive and the participle. The "r" loss is the key sound change. In the participle, the same process produced a vowel that developed into the "o" of modern "spoken", while the infinitive settled as "speak". Both modern forms descend from the same Old English root, so "speak" and "spoken" are related through a shared ancestor rather than through a simple suffix.