The copulative ''a'' (also ''a'' copulativum, ''a'' athroistikon) is the
prefix
A prefix is an affix which is placed before the Word stem, stem of a word. Adding it to the beginning of one word changes it into another word. For example, when the prefix ''un-'' is added to the word ''happy'', it creates the word ''unhappy'' ...
''ha-'' or ''a-'' expressing unity in
Ancient Greek, derived from
Proto-Indo-European *''sm̥-'', cognate to English ''same'' (see also
Symbel
Symbel ( OE) and sumbl ( ON) are Germanic terms for "feast, banquet".
Accounts of the ''symbel'' are preserved in the Anglo-Saxon ''Beowulf'' (lines 489-675 and 1491–1500), ''Dream of the Rood'' (line 141) and '' Judith'' (line 15), Old Saxon ...
).
[.]
An example is ''a-delphos'' "brother", from *''sm̥-g
welbhos'' literally "from the ''same'' womb" (compare
Delphi
Delphi (; ), in legend previously called Pytho (Πυθώ), in ancient times was a sacred precinct that served as the seat of Pythia, the major oracle who was consulted about important decisions throughout the ancient classical world. The oracle ...
).
In
Proto-Greek, ''s'' at the beginning of a word became ''h'' by
debuccalization and
syllabic ''m̥'' became ''a'', giving ''ha-''. The initial ''h'' was sometimes lost by
psilosis or
Grassmann's law.
Cognate
In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymology, etymological ancestor in a proto-language, common parent language. Because language c ...
forms in other languages preserve the ''s'': for example, the
Sanskrit prefix ''saṃ-'' in the name of the language, ''saṃ-s-kṛtā'' "put together". Less exact cognates include English ''same'' and ''some'', and Latin ''simul'' "at the same time" and ''similis'' "similar".
Other words in Greek are related, including ''háma'' "at the same time", ''homós'' "same", and ''heís'' "one" (from ).
[, , .]
See also
*
Privative a An alpha privative or, rarely, privative a (from Latin ', from Ancient Greek ) is the prefix ''a-'' or ''an-'' (before vowels) that is used in Indo-European languages such as Sanskrit and Greek and in words borrowed therefrom to express negation or ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Copulative A
Indo-European linguistics
Greek language