Rule 1. in English is that there are no rules in the prescriptive sense Grammarians and lexicographers are, despite what they may claim or avow, essentially descriptive.

What is clear is that English is not static, and that it has a range of local variation. Even American Standard is not completely coincident with Standard English in England, or with Standard Scots for that matter! And those standards themselves are areas of slowly changing social agreement and nowhere legislated for. That said, there are broad areas of agreement. In addition many institutions and publishers choose to make their own house rules. This, of course, does not make them any more ‘right’.

In the context of the present discussion of verb forms I would say that ‘pled’ is virtually unknown here in England ‘Sped’ and ’speeded’ are both allowed here. ‘Beseeched’ is around, but sounds odd to my ear and is the only form in the Oxford English Dictionary. Nonetheless it is given as the alternative to ‘besought’ in our Collins dictionary. Not that it is a word uttered on a daily basis by most people! On the other hand ‘teached’ for’ taught’ and digged for ‘dug’ are still common in several English dialects, including the one where I live in Bristol, though not standard. These were common forms in Elizabethan English, occur in the Bible and Shakespeare and bid (not ‘bidded’ of course!) fair to become standard for a while
.
Mind you, in my native dialect of Suffolk in the East of England we also use ‘mew’ for ‘mowed’, ’snew’ for ’snowed’, and ’shew’ for showed’! ‘Dove’, however, for the British Standard (and everywhere usual) ‘dived’ is a sure marker of a transatlantic traveller! ‘Weaved’ versus ‘wove’? ‘The drunk weaved his way home’, but ‘the weaver wove fine linen’ sound right to my ears; one for literal, one for metaphorical; but I bet you could find plenty of exceptions, even over here.

The truth is that English has been subject for all its history, as most languages are, to the twin and contradictory forces of regularization and differentiation.

It is also true that many people are at least irked by change in their mother tongue, while others, and not exclusively the young, delight in cultivating novelty. It was ever thus!

And while we’re complaining, the next person I hear using the pleonastic ‘overly’ I will cheerfiully throttle! It was unknown here in England 10 -15 years ago. Such is the power of the media.

1. “Awe…” for “Awwww…,” (usually seen online).

2. “Pull up his boot straps” for “Pull himself up by his bootstraps,”
(heard on CNN twice in the last week).

Tell me it isn’t so.