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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).cite-ref-a-1-0[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'.cite-ref-2[2]cite-ref-3[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).cite-ref-a-1-1[1]cite-ref-4[4]

• See also

• References

• Privative a

cite-note-a-11. ↑ ἀ-. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus Project.

cite-note-22. ↑ citerefharperHarper, Douglas. "same". Online Etymology Dictionary.

cite-note-33. ↑ citerefreference-oed-same"same". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)

cite-note-44. ↑ ἅμα, ὁμός, εἷς in Liddell and Scott.