Alpha privative
An alpha privative or, rarely, privative a is the prefix a- or an- 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.
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. It shares the same root with the Greek prefix nē- or ne-, in Greek νη- or νε-, that is also privative.
It is not to be confused with, among other things, an alpha copulative or the prefix an-.
Cognates
Sanskrit
The same prefix appears in Sanskrit, also as a- before consonants; and an- before vowels.Latin
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.Germanic languages
In English and other West Germanic languages, the cognate is un-.In North Germanic languages, the -n- has disappeared and Old Norse has ú-, Danish and Norwegian have u-, whereas Swedish uses o-, and Icelandic and Faroese use the related.