a

I.

1. vocative particle, Irish a, Old Irish á,a; Welsh, Cornish, Breton a; Latin o; Greek $$Gw$$?

2. his, her, Irish, a, Old Irish á, ái (accented), Welsh ei, Breton e, Celtic esjo, esjâs; Sanskrit gen. asyá, asyâs. The gen. pl. is an, their, Old Irish a n-, Celtic esjon (Stokes gives esan=Sanskrit gem. gen. pl. âsâm).

3. who, that (rel. pron.). In Gaelic this is merely the verbal particle do of past time, used also to explain the aspiration of the future rel. sentence. Oblique cases are done by an, am (for san, sam, Old Irish san, sam), the neut. of art. used as rel. (cf. English that). The rel. locative is sometimes done by the prep. an, am: "An coire am bi na caoraich" (1776 Collection, p112).

4. out of, ex: See as.

5. from, in the adverbs a nall, a nìos, a nuas, a null; Irish, Old Irish an-, as anuas, etc.; Celtic a(p)ona, a derivative from Indo-European apo, whence Latin ab, Greek $$Ga$$'pó; German von, from, is the exact equivalent of the Celtic. The a before sìos and suas is due to analogy with a nìos, a nuas.

6. in to, as in a bhàn, a bhos, a nis, a stigh, a steach, is the prep. an, in, into, q.v.

7. as in a rìs, &c., and before verbs, is the prep. do, q.v.

II.

as, a

out of, from, Irish as, Old Irish ass, a, Welsh a, oc, Breton a, ag, Gaulish ex-; Latin ex; Greek e$$'x, etc. as- is also used as a privative particle.