Using "ran" as a past participle

I've got a document I'm reading, written by a co-worker. I know the co-worker in question grew up in the same Oklahoma town I did, although a slightly different part, and 15 years later. So while we both speak essentially the same dialect, there could be some nuances of dialect we have different.

Anyway, this document is otherwise very well-written, except for one thing that is just bugging the heck out of me: He uses the word "ran" instead of "run" in past participles. This isn't a one-off. It was bothering me enough that I decided to "fix" it, and so far I'm about halfway through and have fixed more than a dozen occurrences.

Clearly this is no accident, but rather how he feels the word is properly used. It also occurs to me that I've occasionally heard other people around here make this same "mistake" in conversation. So I'm wondering if there is some dialect, or perhaps generational thing going on here. If that's the case, perhaps I shouldn't be presuming to "fix" it.

Here's a couple of examples:

...the target architecture required for the element to be ran.

If not defined, the element will be ran regardless of system architecture.

...element is always ran.

Solution 1:

Being such an old and such a common word, there is a great many regional, colloquial and occasionally idiosyncratic forms of run and ran found.

Of these forms, using ran as the past participle is relatively common, and has been found in many regions and has turned up as such for centuries.

So as a dialect use, it's of long standing. But then, so is runned and ranned which we would generally avoid in formal English too.

It's not standard English, and should hence be avoided in places where standard English is appropriate.

Solution 2:

This is normal usage in several regions of England, including Manchester where I grew up. I only really figured out what my English teachers were complaining about in my writing when I went to study teaching English as a foreign language. Many dialects alternate between the past simple and past participle in their respective positions. The past participle almost doesn't exist in several dialects, except as an adjective. If the document in question is for official public use, by all means correct it to suit standard norms.