Alpha privative

An alpha privative or, rarely,^[1] privative a (from Latin alpha prīvātīvum, from Ancient Greek α στερητικόν) 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 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 syllabic nasal *n̥-, the zero ablaut grade of the negation *ne, i.e. /n/ used as a vowel. For this reason, it usually appears as an- before vowels (e.g. an-alphabetism , an-esthesia , an-archy ).^[2] It shares the same root with the Greek prefix nē- or ne-, in Greek νη- or νε-, that is also privative (e.g. ne-penthe ).^[3]

It is not to be confused with, among other things, an alpha copulative (e.g. a-delphós ) or the prefix an- (i.e. the preposition aná with ecthlipsis or elision of its final vowel before a following vowel; e.g. an-ode ).

The same prefix appears in Sanskrit, also as a- before consonants; and an- before vowels (written अ and अन्, respectively in Devanagari).

In Latin, the cognate prefix is in-, 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 prepositional prefix in- is unrelated.

In English and other West Germanic languages, the cognate is un- (or on-).

In North Germanic languages, the -n- has disappeared and Old Norse has ú- (e.g. ú-dáins-akr ), Danish and Norwegian have u-, whereas Swedish uses o- (pronounced [u]), and Icelandic and Faroese use the related ó- .

The prefix ἁ- ha- (also ἀ- a- from psilosis), copulative a, is nearly homonymous with privative a, but originates from Proto-Indo-European *sm̥.^[2]

• Copulative a

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