Snuck

I'm a great fan of colloquial, non-schoolmarm English. You know, "ain't," "warsh," "chimbley," stuff like that. It sort of makes up, in a small way, for English being not quite as loaded in weirdly divergent dialects as, say, Italian.

And I'm also a fan of irregular forms such as "ox, oxen," or "throw, threw, thrown." Not only are they cool, but there are philosophical depths which rise to expression in such irregularities; or am I the only person here who's read Ernst Cassirer?

But could someone please tell me what's up with "snuck" as a colloquial, irregular past tense of "sneak"? I mean, I think it's cool, I use it myself; but what's with it? Where did such a funky irregularity come from, anyhow?