"Isn't "t" often used instead of "ed" in the UK, ie learnt instead of learned ? Thus skint would be skinned. Perhaps the root of this could also be scant."
Not really, in UK english 'learnt' is the past tense of "to learn", 'learned' is used to mean 'well educated', as in 'the learned gentleman', and is pronounced as two syllables, learn-ed.