Etymology and Historical Linguistics

Suppletion is a linguistic phenomenon where an irregular morphological change occurs in a word, often involving the use of entirely different roots to express different grammatical forms. Instead of following a regular pattern of inflection or derivation, one form of the word is replaced with a different word. A common example is the English verb "to be," which has different forms such as "am," "is," and "are" instead of following a standard pattern. Suppletion can reveal historical connections between words and show how languages evolve over time.