Word Order and verb endings

[Jens Elmegaard Rasmussen]

On Thu, 28 Jun 2001, Kreso Megyeral wrote:

> [... W]hat is general opinion on theory that PIE had the opposition
> between indefinite and definite conjugation, as Hungarian does. Some
> of the linguists interpret thematic vowel in declension and
> conjugation as some kind of suffixated article. The theory is proved
> by the fact that there is no intransitive thematic vowel of
> undisputable IE origin. Your attitudes?

The thematic vowel is not used as an object or definiteness marker
anywhere in IE. The testimony of IE itself is that the thematic vowel
marks the subjunctive. In the nominal system, the thematic vowel is used
to create adjectives. I would suppose - but cannot prove - that there is a
common origin involved, in that the subjunctive was originally the verb of
subordinate clauses, so that stems with the thematic vowel would be used
to modify stems without it.

Jens