ABSTRACT
Note that the living language's three-way aspect system of verb-endings (non-past, past and unreality) is simply discarded in the literary language - perhaps because such a system is not immediately apparent in the Latin model - and that what we know as the unreality endings, for example, occur in the imperfect and pluperfect in LW, with no sense of unreality. The past endings are to be seen in the preterite, but the plural forms have an extra syllable -as-inserted, and this element also appears throughout the pluperfect, but with 'unreality' endings. Notice also that some LW endings change the form of the stem, e.g. can-u but cenaist ( CW canest ti). And most striking of all (particularly to students of Latin), notice that the personal pronouns that are part and parcel of the verb in the living language, are omitted in LW, which generally allows the endings to convey this information:
rhedasant canaf
they ran I sing
( CW rhedon nhw) ( CW dw i'n canu)
Notice also that all first person plural forms end in -m, and all third person plural forms in -nt. Both these have been -n for many centuries now in the living language, and on no account should you ever allow yourself to feel tempted to imitate them in speech. Don't use them in writing either, for that matter.
