An alpha privative or, rarely, privative a (from

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

', from

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

) is the

prefix A prefix is an affix which is placed before the stem of a word. Particularly in the study of languages, a prefix is also called a preformative, because it alters the form of the word to which it is affixed. Prefixes, like other affixes, can b ...

''a-'' or ''an-'' (before vowels) that is used in

Indo-European languages The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...

such as

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

and Greek and in words borrowed therefrom to express negation or absence, for example the English words of Greek origin '' atypical'', '' anesthetic'', and '' analgesic'', as well as the English word of Sanskrit origin ''ahimsa'' (''ahinsa''). It is derived from a

Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. No direct record of Proto-Indo-European exists; its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-Euro ...

syllabic nasal *', the zero ablaut grade of the negation *', i.e. /n/ used as a vowel. For this reason, it usually appears as ' before vowels (e.g. '' an-alphabetism'', '' an-esthesia'', '' an-archy''). It shares the same root with the Greek prefix ' or ', in Greek or , that is also privative (e.g. '). It is not to be confused with, among other things, an alpha copulative (e.g. '' a-delphós'') or the prefix ' (i.e. the preposition ' with ecthlipsis or

elision In linguistics, an elision or deletion is the omission of one or more sounds (such as a vowel, a consonant, or a whole syllable) in a word or phrase. However, these terms are also used to refer more narrowly to cases where two words are run to ...

of its final vowel before a following vowel; e.g. ').

Cognates

Sanskrit

The same prefix appears in

, also as before consonants; and before vowels (written अ and अन्, respectively in

Devanagari Devanagari ( ; in script: , , ) is an Indic script used in the Indian subcontinent. It is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental Writing systems#Segmental systems: alphabets, writing system), based on the ancient ''Brāhmī script, Brā ...

Latin

, the

cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical effects on both the s ...

prefix is ', which leaves its traces in English words like '' invisible'' and '' inaccessible'', and in its assimilated form in words like ''irresistible'', ''irrelevant'', ''irresponsible'', ''illegitimate'', ''illegal,'' ''illiterate''. The

preposition Adpositions are a part of speech, class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in, under, towards, behind, ago'', etc.) or mark various thematic relations, semantic roles (''of, for''). The most common adpositions are prepositi ...

al prefix ' is unrelated.

Germanic languages

In English and other

West Germanic languages The West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three branches of the Germanic languages, Germanic family of languages (the others being the North Germanic languages, North Germanic and the extinct East Germanic languages, East Germ ...

, the cognate is ''un-'' (or ''on-''). In

North Germanic languages The North Germanic languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages—a sub-family of the Indo-European languages—along with the West Germanic languages and the extinct East Germanic languages. The language group is also r ...

, the -''n''- has disappeared and

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

has ' (e.g. ), Danish and Norwegian have ', whereas Swedish uses ' (pronounced , and Icelandic and Faroese use the related '.

Homonym

The prefix ' (also - ' from psilosis),

copulative a Copulative may refer to: * Copula (linguistics), a part of speech * Copulation (zoology) In zoology, copulation is animal sexual behavior in which a male introduces sperm into the female's body, especially directly into her reproductive tra ...

, is nearly homonymous with privative ', but originates from Proto-Indo-European *.

References