Do native speakers ever (erroneously) pronounce past participles in -thed, such as bathed and clothed, as */-ðɪd/ rather than /-ðd/? If so, how prevalent is this?
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2 Answers
In Modern English, a big No. In Old English and Middle English, Yes!
The past/past participles of regular verbs were all pronounced /-ɪd/ (or maybe /-ɨd/) until Modern English. As far as I know, Shakespeare has used both forms (/-ɪd/ and /-d/), but the vowel was then lost and the final /d/ merged into the preceding consonant. That's why we say /beɪðd/ not */beɪðɪd/.
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Some non-verbs ending in -ed do have the /-ɪd/ sound though, e.g. crooked and wicked. Commented Feb 4, 2021 at 17:12
I can’t recall hearing a native speaker make that mistake, at least past the young age when we first learn that sound, but it is sometimes done on purpose in poetry or lyrics (and written as bath’ed or bath-ed) when the author needs an extra syllable to fit the meter or rhythm.
