T£ I'^'^l - JScholarship - Johns Hopkins University

I33-] THE VERB. 85
Preterite and Perfect Indicative Active.
132. sg. 3. In this person there is a variety of endings.
(a) -as, e.g. bradas betrayed, caffas got, gwelas saw.
(b) -es, e.g. agores opened, dodes put, gweles saw.
(c) -is, e.g. erchis asked, edewis left, gelwis called.
(d) --wys, becoming -ws, e.g. bendigwys and bendigws
blessed, cyscwys and cyscws slept. In the southern dialect -ws
became the characteristic ending in this person.
(e) -awd (i.e. awd), e.g. parawd caused, cerdawd journeyed,
parhaawd continued. This is an encroaching ending, whence
comes the Mod. literary Welsh ending -od.
NOTE.—In early poetry there is an absolute ending -sit (corresponding
to the present ending -it (§ 129), e.g. ke-wssit got, prynessid bought, delyessid-
(: dala) held. Cf. Arch. Cambr. 1873, pp. 151 sq. It corresponds to the
O. Bret, ending in tinsit gl. sparsit, toreusit gl. attriuit.
I pi., 3 pi. In these persons by -sam, -sant, there appear also
-som, -sont.
Plur.—In the plural there are three types of formation, (a)
-sam, etc., (b) -assam, etc., (c) -yssam, etc., e.g—
(a) cawsam, cawsawch, cawsant: caffael get, kymersam,
kymersant: cymryt take, gwelsam, gwelsant: gwelet see.
(b) dywedassam: dsrwedut say, lladassant: Had slay,
nessaassant: nessaii approach.
(c) dodyssam, dodyssant: dodi place, kwplayssam:
kwplaii complete, nessayassant: nessaii approach.
133. In Mid.W., as in Mid.Ir., the s-preterite has become the
prevalent formation, in which the other types of the preterite tend to
merge. But particularly in poetry, and especiaHy in the 3 sg., there
are examples of two other types of the preterite.
(a) The t-preterite (corresponding to the Irish t-preterite, e.g.
asbert he said: asbeir says).
canu sing: sg. i ceint and ceintum, sg. 2 ceuntost, sg. 3 cant.
gwan pierce : sg. i gweint, sg. 3 gwant.
cymryt take: sg. 3 kymerth, kymyrth.
di^ryt protect: sg. 3 differth, diifyrth.