PIE mood

Core thematic subjunctive

In PIE, the so-called PIE thematic vowel was meaningless in all categories, except for the construction of the subjunctive mood¹, which could be constructed by appending such a thematic vowel to an e-grade verb stem.

• e.g. aorist indicative of ‘to step‘ (stepped) has 3sg. gʷém-d, 3pl. gʷ-ménd; subjunctive has 3sg. gʷém-e-ti, 3pl. gʷém-o-nti.

Double-thematic

In cases where the stem itself is thematic, the meaningless thematic vowel and the appended thematic vowel contract so that an apparent lengthened thematic vowel is present.

• e.g. present indicative of ‘to walk’ has 3sg. gʷṃ-sḱé-ti, 3pl. gʷṃ-sḱó-nti; subjunctive has 3sg. gʷṃ-sḱḗ-ti ← gʷṃ-sḱé-e-ti, 3pl. gʷṃ-skṓ-nti ← gʷṃ-sḱó-o-nti.¹²

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