Latin verbal system: how perfect and aorist joined in the new perfect?

[petegray]

 Steven, attorney at law ,said:

> --- languages developing from spoken [Latin];
> --- edited literary texts; and
> --- a handful of surviving examples of graffiti.

> This is essentially what we have when we consider Latin

We also have:
(a) grammarians' descriptions;
(b) records of stigmatised pronunciations
(c) puns, misunderstandings, and all sorts of paranomasia;
(d) deliberate mimicking of non-classical pronunciations (remember Clodia?
    or Catullus?)
(e) spelling mistakes on formal inscriptions
(f) spelling alternatives on inscriptions

and more.   See W S Allen Vox Latina for more details.   We have a very good
idea of how Romans spoke.

Peter