Here Oliver Cowdery wrote had spoke in 𝓟, which the 1830 typesetter reinterpreted as the standard had spoken, perhaps assuming that Oliver had accidentally dropped the final n from spoken. There are two other possible interpretations. One is that the original text actually read had spoke. We have already seen many examples where the original text permitted the past participle to be identical to the simple past-tense form, such as had came instead of had come (for this example, see the discussion under 1 Nephi 5:1, 4; also see the general discussion under past participle in volume 3). The problem with this proposal is that spoke never seems to have occurred as the simple past-tense form for the verb speak anywhere in the original text; instead, the simple past-tense form was consistently spake (see the discussion under 1 Nephi 12:19). The systematic preference for spake over spoke implies another alternative interpretation for had spoke here in Mosiah 11:26— namely, had spoke is a scribal error for had spake.
There is considerable evidence for this interpretation. First of all, the original text had at least 14 occurrences of spake as the past participle. (See the brief discussion under 1 Nephi 3:30; for a complete list, see under past participle in volume 3.) One original example of had spake is, in fact, found in the next verse after Mosiah 11:26:
Further support can be found from Oliver Cowdery’s own scribal practice. Once, in copying from 𝓞 into 𝓟, he replaced an instance of the simple past-tense spake with spoke; here the scribe in 𝓞 was the unknown scribe 2 rather than Oliver himself:
Another time, in an earlier passage in the book of Mosiah, Oliver initially wrote the simple pasttense spoke instead of the correct spake, but then almost immediately he corrected it to spake:
As noted above, there are no instances in the earliest text of spoke as the simple past-tense form for the verb speak. Correspondingly, it seems unlikely that there would have been any occurrences of spoke as the past participle either. In addition, there are no instances elsewhere in the manuscripts where Oliver Cowdery (or any other scribe) accidentally dropped the final n of spoken, so had spoke as an error for had spoken seems unlikely. The most reasonable assumption is that Mosiah 11:26 originally read had spake.
Summary: Emend Mosiah 11:26 to read had spake instead of the standard had spoken; in accord with other scribal errors, the reading in 𝓟 (had spoke) appears to be a scribal error for had spake.