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The copulative a (also a copulativum, 'a athroistikon') is the prefix ἁ- () or α- () used to express unity in Ancient Greek, derived from Proto-Indo-European , cognate to English same (see also symbel)..
An example is 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, सं॒स्कृ॒त , literally 'put together'. Less exact cognates include English same and some, and Latin simul 'at the same time' and similis 'similar'.
Other words in Greek are related, including ᾰ̔́μᾰ ( 'at the same time'), ὁμός ( 'same'), and εἷς ( 'one'; from Proto-Indo-European )., , .
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