Exactly, that’s the expected path: the irregular form disappears as more and more speakers forget it and instead, “on the fly”, apply the general rules of word formation in their language. Over time the “regularised” form becomes the accepted, “correct” one.
Wait, what’s the other option for past tense ‘to prove’?
“I have proven”
That would be the past participle wouldn’t it?
Yeah, that’s what I said earlier.
Ah, duh. Interesting that it’s moving to the more typical “ed” ending
Exactly, that’s the expected path: the irregular form disappears as more and more speakers forget it and instead, “on the fly”, apply the general rules of word formation in their language. Over time the “regularised” form becomes the accepted, “correct” one.
OP has just proven their point.