Re: "Would" & The Latin Subjunctive

From: Thomas Bushnell, BSG (tb+usenet_at_becket.net)
Date: 08/19/04 

Date: 19 Aug 2004 14:10:54 -0700

"Matt Matthias" <matt@mmatthias.freeserve.co.uk> writes:

> I've always found it interesting that Greek needs two 'subjunctive' moods,
> the Subjunctive and Optative; isn't one for possibility and the other for
> more remote possibility?

My understanding is that proto-IE worked this way too, and Greek (and
a variety of other IE languages too) is preserving that. IIRC, the
Latin present subjunctive is actually descended from the old optative.

Thomas

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