Abstract
The article is concerned with diachronic analysis of Latin participles and other verbal adjectives of participial character, i.e. those that denote entities by the means of an action that is determined in aspect/tense and does not express a permanent attribute of an entity. The system of Latin participles is usually described as "incomplete", as a system where some positions are not occupied (past active, present and future passive participle).
From the synchronic point of view it is undoubtedly so. But the Latin participial system corresponds surprisingly closely to the very oldest phase of the PIE verb system as described by H.
Kurzová (1993), and could be regarded differently than is common: not as "defective", but as actually highly conservative.