Copulative a
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The copulative a (also a copulativum, a athroistikon) is the prefix ἁ- (ha-) or α- (a-) used to express unity in Ancient Greek, derived from Proto-Indo-European *sm̥-, cognate to English same (see also symbel).[1]
An example is ἀδελφός (adelphós 'brother'), from *sm̥-gʷelbhos, literally meaning 'from the same womb' (compare Delphi).
In Proto-Greek, the Proto-Indo-European phoneme *s at the beginning of a word became *h by debuccalization and syllabic *m̥ became *a, giving the combined form *ha-. The initial *h was sometimes lost by psilosis or Grassmann's law.
Cognate forms in other languages preserve the original Proto-Indo-European *s. For example, the Sanskrit prefix saṃ- occurs in the name of the language, सं॒स्कृ॒त saṃ-s-kṛtá, literally 'put together'. Less exact cognates include English same and some, and Latin simul 'at the same time' and similis 'similar'.[2][3]
Other words in Greek are related, including ᾰ̔́μᾰ (háma 'at the same time'), ὁμός (homós 'same'), and εἷς (heís 'one'; from Proto-Indo-European *sem-s).[1][4]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- 1 2 ἀ-. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus Project.
- ↑ Harper, Douglas. "same". Online Etymology Dictionary.
- ↑ "same". Oxford English Dictionary (online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
- ↑ ἅμα, ὁμός, εἷς in Liddell and Scott.