The optative mood ( OP-tə-tiv or op-TAY-tiv; abbreviated opt) is a grammatical mood that indicates a wish or hope regarding a given action. It is a superset of the cohortative mood and is closely related to the subjunctive mood but is distinct from the desiderative mood. English has no morphological optative, but various constructions impute an optative meaning. 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.
English Although English has no morphological optative, analogous constructions impute an optative meaning, including the use of certain modal verbs:
May you have a long life! Would that I were younger. So mote it be. Periphrastic constructions include if only together with a subjunctive complement:
If only I were rich! I would sing if only I weren't tone deaf. The optative mood can also be expressed elliptically:
(May) God save the Queen! (May you) Have a nice day. (May) God bless America. The cohortative verb phrases let's (or let us) represent a syntactical mood as a subset of the optative mood:
Let's try it. Let us pray.
Indo-European languages
Proto-Indo-European 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.
Albanian In Albanian, the optative (mënyra dëshirore, lit. "wishing mood") expresses wishes, and is also used in curses and swearing.
Wish: U bëfsh 100 vjeç! (May you reach/live 100 years) Curse: Të marrtë djalli! (May the devil take you)
Ancient Greek
In Ancient Greek, the optative is used to express wishes and potentiality in independent clauses (but also has other functions, such as contrary-to-fact expressions in the present). 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 a diphthong such as οι (oi) in thematic verbs and ι in athematic verbs.
Germanic languages 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. A Germanic innovation of form and functionality was the past tense of the optative, which reflected the irrealis of past and future. This is shown by evidence in the Gothic language, Old High German, Old English, and Old Norse. This use of the (new) optative past tense as an irrealis mood started apparently after the Proto-Germanic past tense that had been once the perfect tense supplanted the Indo-German aorist (compare Euler 2009:184). A somewhat archaic Dutch saying, Leve de Koning ("long live the king") is another example of how the optative still is present in Germanic languages today.
Latin Likewise in Latin, the newer subjunctive is based on the Indo-European optative. With this change in Latin, several old subjunctive forms became future forms. Accordingly, the prohibitive (negative desire and prohibition) was formed with the combination of *ne + verb form in the optative present.
Romanian In Romanian, the conditional and optative moods have identical forms, thus being commonly referred to as the conditional-optative mood.
Sanskrit In Sanskrit, the optative is formed by adding the secondary endings to the verb stem. It sometimes expresses wishes, requests and commands: bhares "may you bear" (active voice) and bharethās "may you bear [for yourself]" (middle). It also expresses possibilities (e.g. kadācid goṣabdena budhyeta "he might perhaps wake up due to the bellowing of cows") or doubt and uncertainty (e.g., katham vidyām Nalam "how would I be able to recognize Nala?"). The optative is sometimes used instead of a conditional mood.
Basque Zuberoan dialect has a special mood, called Botiboa (Votive), and unknown to the other dialects, used for making wishes. The auxiliary verb, whose characteristic is the prefix ai-, always precedes the main verb and, in negative wishes, also the negative adverb ez (meaning no, not):
Ailü ikusi! ('If she/he had only seen it/him/her!'). Ailü ikusi! ('If he/she hadn't only seen her/him/it!'). In Standard Basque, like in all the other dialects, such wishes are made with the particle ahal, and the future indicative tense:
Arazoa ikusiko ahal du! ('I wish he/she saw the problem'). Ez ahal du ikusiko! ('I hope she/he will not see her/him/it'): in negative wishes, the particle ahal goes between the negative adverb ez and the verbal auxiliary. All the dialects have verbal forms in the imperative mood (Agintera), even for commands concerning the 3rd person, both singular and plural:
Liburua ikus beza! ('May he/she see the book!'). Liburuak ikus bitzate! ('May they see the books!'). For commands concerning the 1st person, present subjunctive forms are used:
Liburua ikus dezadan! ('Let me see the book! —it is not asking any listener for permission to see that book, but a personal wish'). Liburuak ikus ditzagun! ('Let's see the books!').
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
