The copulative a (also a copulativum, a athroistikon) is the prefix Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἁ- or Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: α- used to express unity in Ancient Greek, derived from Proto-Indo-European , cognate to English same (see also symbel).[1]
An example is Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἀδελφός ('brother'), from , literally meaning 'from the same womb' (compare Delphi).
In Proto-Greek, the Proto-Indo-European phoneme at the beginning of a word became *h by debuccalization and syllabic 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 . For example, the Sanskrit prefix occurs in the name of the language, Sanskrit: सं॒स्कृ॒त, literally 'put together'. Less exact cognates include English same and some, and Latin Latin: simul 'at the same time' and Latin: similis 'similar'.
Other words in Greek are related, including Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ᾰ̔́μᾰ ('at the same time'), Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ὁμός ('same'), and Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: εἷς ('one'; from Proto-Indo-European ).[2]