Optative mood

The optative mood /ˈɒptətɪv/ or /ɒpˈteɪtɪv/ (abbreviated OPT) is a grammatical mood that indicates a wish or hope. It is similar to the cohortative mood, and is closely related to the subjunctive mood. The optative mood /ˈɒptətɪv/ or /ɒpˈteɪtɪv/ (abbreviated OPT) is a grammatical mood that indicates a wish or hope. It is similar to the cohortative mood, and is closely related to the subjunctive mood. English has no morphological optative, but there are various constructions which impute an optative meaning. One uses the modal verb may, e.g. May you have a long life! Another uses the phrase if only with a verb in the past or past subjunctive, e.g. If only I were rich! Another uses the present subjunctive, e.g. God save the Queen! Examples of languages with a morphological optative mood are Ancient Greek, Albanian, Armenian, Georgian, Friulian, Kazakh, Kurdish, Navajo, Old Prussian, Old Persian, Sanskrit, Turkish, and Yup'ik. The optative is one of the four original moods of Proto-Indo-European (the other three being the indicative mood, the subjunctive mood, and the imperative mood). However, many Indo-European languages lost the inherited optative, either as a formal category, or functional, i.e. merged it with the subjunctive, or even replaced the subjunctive with optative. In Albanian, the optative (mënyra dëshirore, lit. 'wishing mood') expresses wishes, and is also used in curses and swearing. In Ancient Greek, the optative is used to express wishes and potentiality in independent clauses. In dependent clauses (purpose, temporal, conditional, and indirect speech), the optative is often used under past-tense main verbs. The optative expressing a wish is on its own or preceded by the particle εἴθε (eithe). The optative expressing potentiality is always accompanied by the untranslatable particle ἄν in an independent clause and is on its own in a dependent clause. In Koine Greek, the optative began to be replaced by the subjunctive; in the New Testament, it was primarily used in set phrases. Its endings are characterized by οι (oi) in thematic verbs and ι in athematic verbs. Some Germanic verb forms often known as subjunctives are actually descendants of the Proto-Indo-European optative. The Gothic present subjunctive nimai 'may he take!' may be compared to Ancient Greek present optative φέροι 'may he bear!' That the old Indo-European optative is represented by the subjunctive is clear in Gothic, which lost the old, 'true' Indo-European subjunctive that represented a fixed desire and intent. Its function was adopted by the present form of the optative that reflected only possibilities, unreal things and general wishes at first.