The distinction of ‘rēad’ ‘rĕad’, ‘lēad’ ‘lĕd’, etc., is thus a mere phonetic accident; a final turning to account, for the purposes of grammatical expression, of a difference which arose secondarily, as the unforeseen consequence of an external addition, when that addition had been lost by phonetic decay. Such a distinction is wont to be termed “inorganic,” as distinguished from one like ‘loved’ from ‘love’, which answers just the purpose for which it was at first intended.
- Whitney (1875), a pag.127