7.1.3. Voices

1. In grammar, Voice is the relationship between the action or state expressed by a verb and its arguments. When the subject is the agent or actor of the verb, the verb is said to be in the Active. When the subject is the patient or target of the action, it is said to be in the Passive.

2. The Active and Middle (or Middle-Passive) Voices in Europaio generally correspond to the active and passive in English; but

a. The Middle voice often has a reflexive meaning, it generally refers to an action whose object is the subject, or an action in which the subject has an interest or a special participation:

he turns (himself)

he puts on his (own) clothes.

b. The Middle-Passive (with Passive endings) is also used in dynamic or eventive passives, as

I became born on July 20.

Someone paints the wall or the wall is being painted.

NOTE 1. The dynamic passive usually means that an action is done, while the static or stative passive means that the action was done at a point in time, that it is already made. The last is obtained in Europaio (as normally in Germanic, Latin and Baltoslavic) with a periphrasis, including the verb es. Following the above examples:

I was born on July 20.

The wall is painted.

NOTE 2. The Passive Voice is an old Middle Voice, characteristic of Italic and Celtic. The concepts underlying the modern Passives are, though, general to the Northern dialects (although differently expressed), and therefore we have to be able to use it in modern Europaio. For the stative passive the use of the verb to be (es in Europaio) is general, but dynamic passives have different forms in each language. Therefore, the middle was the best option keeping thus tradition and unity. See §§ 7.2.2. 7.2.7,3.

c. Some verbs are active, as, es, be, ed, eat or do, give

d. Many verbs are middle in form, but active or reflexive in meaning. These are called Deponents: as, kei, lay; seq, follow.