# a-running ... prefix a- before verb.



## Mr Bones

Hello, folks. I'm reading a Shirley Jackson's story -The Lottery- and I came across this expression or word or whatever it is I can't understand. Here you are:

“Thought my old man was out back stacking wood,” Mrs. Hutchinson went on, “and then I looked out the window and the kids was gone, and then I remembered it was the twenty-seventh and came *a-running.”*


What does *a-running *mean? I haven't a clue, but I guess it can be a very simple thing. Could you help me?

Thank you, Bones.


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## nycphotography

It's colloquial, and it's just a variation of running.

He came a-calling.
I came a-running.
She went a-screaming.

It's rather old fashioned these days, something you'd expect to hear from older folks.


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## Mr Bones

Thank you, nyc. But I don't understand if this adds some quality or something to the current word. Is a-running a faster way to run, for example? Thank you, Bones.


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## Bienvenidos

A-running means that they have more incentive to arrive to the place to which they are running.

*When I told her there were bagels in the conference room, she came a-running.*

The same applies with the others:

*She refused to come over for dinner, but she came a-calling when she needed someone to feed her cat for the weekend.*

*Bien*


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## Mr Bones

Thank you, Bienvenidos. Bones.


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## panjandrum

Another interesting lesson, though not much use in modern English as we tend not to use the a-prefix versions these days.
The a- prefix to verbs of motion, in particular, is an intensifier.
Here is what the OED says after lengthy explanations about the different reasons that words acquired a- prefixes ...


> Hence, it naturally happened that all these _a-_ prefixes were at length confusedly lumped together in idea, and the resultant _a-_ looked upon as vaguely intensive, rhetorical, euphonic, or even archaic, and wholly otiose.


Don't you just love the sound of that sentence


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## Mr Bones

> Don't you just love the sound of that sentence


 
Yes indeed. Thank you, Panj.


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## Danae

Hi everyone, I've been reading Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens and I find it somehow difficult to understand, at least for an english learner like me... I'm keeping a doubt for about some time and I thought that maybe you guys could help me figuring it out: there's a constant writing of the verbs composed of an 'a' and the verb in the gerund. For ex.: "I was only *a-telling, a-coming, a-going* to say". I know this book comes from a very different epoch, and these expressions come, so far, from very peculiar characters, but I was wondering what does it have to do with? is it simply derived from the pronunciation, or something else? Is it normal? 
Thank you for any eventual answer to this doubt!


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## shrek99

I believe it is probably meant to be street dialect for the time. It also serves to develop the character through the use of the singsong sound of a-going, a-doing etc. No, it is not common usage.


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## Porteño

No, it's certainly not common usage todaym but you might find these of interest.

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0064209/
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2088-1502319,00.html
http://new.edp24.co.uk/content/news...gory=news&itemid=NOED05+Nov+2005+11:46:26:223


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## panjandrum

The use of a- before any gerund/participle is old - recorded from the 16th century. 
Two meanings are noted, both seeming to reinforce the verb:
*Engaged in* - The bells are a-ringing, the band is a-playing.
*Motion to, into* - I'm going a-shopping. The bus is a-coming.

Over time the a- prefix has been omitted, but it remained in colloquial speech until broadcast media wiped it out.
(Paraphrased from the OED and Fowler, with a touch of embroidery.)

So I expect that Dickens' use of this form reflects its ongoing use in common speech in the 19th century.

Still, what's good enough for Dylan ....
(The times they are a-changin')


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## Porteño

Of course! How could I have forgotten Bob?


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## shrek99

Ahh, also let's not forget 'And a Partridge in a Pear Tree', the sixteenth century Christmas Carol, so definitely archaic.
On the seventh day of Christmas, 
my true love sent to me 
Seven swans a-swimming, 
Six geese a-laying, ...and so on.


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## Anais Ninn

a-prefixing is not necessarily archaic. It's still quite common in Appalachian English.

Anais 



shrek99 said:


> Ahh, ... so definitely archaic.
> On the seventh day of Christmas,
> my true love sent to me
> Seven swans a-swimming,
> Six geese a-laying, ...and so on.


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## shrek99

That is really interesting! I really don't know much about Appalachian English, but could it be considered a dialect based on archaic English? Just curious...


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## Anais Ninn

That's a good question, Shrek99.

Check out the summary of _A-Prefixing in Appalachian English:__Archaism or Innovation?,_ an article by Michael Montgomery. 
http://www.pbs.org/speak/seatosea/americanvarieties/a-prefixing/background/  

Anais


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## shrek99

Thanks Anais, I went a-hunting where you suggested and found Michael's article very interesting. Whatever the origin, it is really quite evocative and musical language with its own quite specific rules of usage!


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## mjscott

My grandmother and mother's older sisters used a'
with a verb--usually a'fixin'

Example:
He was a'fixin' to go to the store.

I think my brother-in-law in Missouri still uses the _a'fixin' _to do something.


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## se16teddy

The use of a- before present participles is old-fashioned or dialectal; but the insertion of an extra schwa before past participles in some contexts is alive and well in speech, e.g. 'If I hadn't a-been here... '


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## maxiogee

se16teddy said:


> The use of a- before present participles is old-fashioned or dialectal; but the insertion of an extra schwa before past participles in some contexts is alive and well in speech, e.g. 'If I hadn't a-been here... '



I don't think that's the _insertion_ of something extra. Is it not the mark of the abridgement of something which shouldn't have been there to begin with? It's probably easier to explain if I change the negative to positive here - "If I had have been there". Sometimes "of" is used instead of the 'have' - particularly in Ireland —> "If I had of been there" Ouch!


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## shrek99

Yes Maxiogee, I agree with the 'a' being an abridgement. Sentences like 'he was a-fixing to go to the store' contain a gerund since 'a' really means that 'he was bent on going' to the store.


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## se16teddy

shrek99 said:


> Yes Maxiogee, I agree with the 'a' being an abridgement.


My hypothesis is that the 'a-' pronounced in 'If I hadn't a-been' is not an abridgement of anything, but is the same syllable as regularly appears before past participles in written Middle and Old English, for example the i in icumen here http://www.bartleby.com/101/1.html. In this hypothesis, forms such as 'If he hadn't of been' or 'If he hadn't have been' are overcorrections / hypercorrections committed by speakers who would naturally say 'a-been' but don't know how to write or say this a- in standard English. 

There was a thread on this subject but I can't find it!


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## Danae

Well, whether it does add something to the verb or not, I'm sure you've helped me enough, thank you for discussing this matter. I was sure this prefix had something of rhythm in it, but I know it might be a lot more than that. You know my difficulty is that I'm supposed to translate several verbs with the a-prefix, and I don't find any equivalent in portuguese... it is those peculiarities that can ruin a translation. Anyway, thanks for the research! I'm still a-looking for something that fits.


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## Giordano Bruno

As an afterthought, don't we still use this form in words like "awaiting"?


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## Danae

I suppose not, since that verb is formed by the latin element _ad- .._.


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## panjandrum

I don't detect any real difference of meaning between the a-verbing and verbing versions, so I'm not convinced you need to worry about these in translation.  Of course these forms may be used to create an archaic effect in English.  I don't know if you can find any equivalent technique in another language - I mean, a way to use your own language to create the same effect as a- prefixes create in English.


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## Veraz

England. Year 1775. 

Mr. A told something really odd to Mr. B, so that Mr. B would report it to other people. B says: "Bust me if I don't think he'd been a drinking!". I guess this is a colloquial manner of speech to say "if I don't think he had been drinking".


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## ewie

Hello again Veraz.  That _a-_ is a prefix you used to see a lot on the front of _-ing_ words (it's a relic from Old English _ge-_, I believe).  It now sounds very old-fashioned, but folk sometimes still use it for comic effect.


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## emma42

I would rather say "archaic", than "old-fashioned", and I'm sure Ewie would agree.

You will see *a' + present participle *in lots of old folk songs, but don't use it today!

Let us go a'dancing-oh!

Have you been a'courting today?

He was a'singing and a'playing the fiddle like a man possessed by the fairies!


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## Veraz

Thank you again, ewie!

And thank you, Emma!


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## Elwintee

ewie said:


> Hello again Veraz.  That _a-_ is a prefix you used to see a lot on the front of _-ing_ words (it's a relic from Old English _ge-_, I believe).  It now sounds very old-fashioned, but folk sometimes still use it for comic effect.



Absolutely, but not just in front of -ing words.  The Oxford English Dictionary gives the example 'a bed' as meaning 'in bed'.  A quotation from Shakespeare's Macbeth (II. i.12) is given: "The King's a bed".  The words 'alive', 'asleep' etc are formed on the same basis. This preposition 'a' is described as a 'worn out proclitic' and the entry also gives 'a begging' under the same heading.


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## JamesM

ewie said:


> Hello again Veraz. That _a-_ is a prefix you used to see a lot on the front of _-ing_ words (it's a relic from Old English _ge-_, I believe). It now sounds very old-fashioned, but folk sometimes still use it for comic effect.


 
Actually, there are dialects in the U.S. where this is still very common.

"He commenced to pitch a fit, a-cussin' and a-swearin' to beat the band!"

Strangely enough, I found an example of this in print, from a Massachusetts newspaper in 1997:

http://archive.southcoasttoday.com/daily/08-97/08-22-97/c01li098.htm
He's Cussin' and Lovin' it

Maybe it's a generational thing. Most everyone I hang around with swears as much as I do, some even more. But my grandparents would definitely be horrified if they could observe me in my natural state, *a-cussin' and a-swearin'*. My grandfather, who is far from a taciturn type of man, gets a stern look on his face when I say, "Wow, it's hot as hell in here."

Loretta Lynn sang a song with the title: "Don't Come Home A-Drinkin' with Lovin' On Your Mind".


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## Veraz

This is very interesting! Lost in England but alive and kicking in the States.


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## Sí se puede

I agree with JamesM. Here in Tennessee it's not uncommon to hear it at all!


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## JamesM

Veraz said:


> This is very interesting! Lost in England but alive and kicking in the States.


 
Actually, that happens a lot.


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## Veraz

"Dollar", as it happens.


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## emma42

Thinking more about it, I wouldn't be at all surprised if this construction were not still kicking around in a few dialects in the UK;  the south west springs to mind (Dorset, Devon etc).  I am guessing, though.


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## ewie

I was trying (in post #2) to avoid saying _No-one's used this construction since 1823 _because, as I suspected and JamesM and Sísepuede have since confirmed, it's alive and well in certain parts of the English-speaking world.  (Perhaps, yes, in the Southwest of the UK too, Emma.)
I wasn't going to go into the fact that I use it _often_ in my own writing [fiction] ~ more to add a kind of quirkiness than for outright comic effect.
It seems to me one of those curious phenomena in English: anyone who's ever read just about anything, or seen just about any film set in a period before the 20th century, or listened to Loretta Lynn (!), will have heard it and be familiar with it ... and yet it is no longer at all used in ~ _ahem_ ~ 'mainstream' English.


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## Toadie

Yes, it's indeed still used a lot in the US.  Mostly only in rural areas, though.  It would be rather funny to hear someone with a strong New Yorker accent say something like "a-walkin'".


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## selavy59

This usage is still alive and 'a kicking' in the south west of England!


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## Veraz

ewie said:


> Hello again Veraz.  That _a-_ is a prefix you used to see a lot on the front of _-ing_ words (it's a relic from Old English _ge-_, I believe).  It now sounds very old-fashioned, but folk sometimes still use it for comic effect.



I was thinking about what you say here, Ewie. I'm not at all acquainted with Old English, but since it "shared blood" with present-day German, I guess this "ge-" went only before past participles, not gerunds or present participles. In the other thread someone has talked about "a-" before past participles too.


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## panjandrum

The OED says that the _a-verbing_ form derives from a worn-down proclitic form of the Old English preposition _an_, _on_.


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## emma42

So does Chambers.


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## ewie

Sorry for the false trail: that was just a guess on my part.

(But yes, Veraz, I'm pretty certain that Old English _ge-_ and Modern German _ge-_ are exactly the same thing, a kind of 'advance warning' that a past participle is on the way.)


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## mplsray

Elwintee said:


> Absolutely, but not just in front of -ing words. The Oxford English Dictionary gives the example 'a bed' as meaning 'in bed'. A quotation from Shakespeare's Macbeth (II. i.12) is given: "The King's a bed". The words 'alive', 'asleep' etc are formed on the same basis. This preposition 'a' is described as a 'worn out proclitic' and the entry also gives 'a begging' under the same heading.


 
Other examples of it occurring in current standard speech in a form no longer obvious to the average native speaker of English, taken from page 2 of _The Century Dictionary_ (available online), are the _a_ in _nowadays_ and the _a_ in _twice a day._ The latter has undergone a reinterpretation to make it an example of the indefinite article, changing to _an_ before a vowel sound, as in _four miles an hour._


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## Greg1975

The a- prefix appears in the following songs by Bob Dylan: 
"The times they're a-changing", "A hard rain's a-gonna fall".
Is it archaic or something? Does it change the meaning of the verb somehow?


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## Dimcl

I believe there's a couple of previous threads about this but I can't find them.  It does not change the meaning at all.  I believe that it's AE jargon that came from uneducated portions of the US decades ago.  I believe that Dylan wrote some of his songs that way to convey that "poor working man" quality.


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## Greg1975

Thank you.


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## natkretep

It's been around for a long time, and it's not only American. Here's the OED: an edited version of sense 11 (and retaining only one example for each sub-sense). 


> *11.* Expressing action, with a verbal noun or gerund taken actively. Now _arch._ and _regional_.
> *a.* After _be_ (or occasionally another verb expressing state) and before a verbal noun: engaged in (some activity). Also with _of_ and object. Cf. IN _prep._1 11c, ON _prep._ 12b.
> _N.E.D._ (1884) states: ‘In literary English the _a_ is omitted, and the verbal noun treated as a participle agreeing with the subject, and governing its case, to _be fishing_, _fighting_, _making anything_. But most of the southern dialects, and the vulgar speech both in England and America, retain the earlier usage.’ *2003* _Daily Tel._ 18 Nov. 23/1 The invitation has been such a long time a-coming.
> 
> *b.* After a verb denoting or implying motion and before a verbal noun: to, into (some action). Cf. IN _prep._1 11c, ON _prep._ 23.
> *2005* _Daily Tel._ 20 June 9/1 Eligible bachelors..meet marriageable ladies..at a country pub to go a-courting in the Cotswolds.
> 
> 
> *c.* Before the gerund of a transitive verb and its object. *2000* O. SENIOR in N. Hopkinson _Whispers from Cotton Tree Root_ 139 This fish not just moving, it dancing. A-wiggling and a-moving its tail.
> 
> 
> *d.* Before a gerund used as subject or object complement generally, equivalent to (and generally considered to be) a present participle. *2006* _Nature_ 4 May p. vii/1 Male túngara frogs a-wooing produce a species-specific call to attract females.


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## Rover_KE

Lyric writers often use this device as a way of adding an extra unstressed syllable to fit the scansion of the line.

Rover


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## natkretep

Thanks, Rover. Yes agreed. 

Also wanted to add that some Bob Dylan stuff is from folk songs, eg ‘Froggie went a-courtin’, and he did ride, Uh-huh’


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## mplsray

The Century Dictionary discusses the meaning under its entry for _a_ as a preposition (it is etymologically a form of _on_) on page 2 of the dictionary: Do a search for _a,_ choose the JPEG option, and then click on the "One Page>" button.

The Century represents usage from the late 19th century. Nowadays, it would be very unusual to see a verb form such as _a coming,_ as mentioned in definition e 1., with no hyphen connecting the two parts. Even back then, some people were using the hyphen.


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## Whizbang

It doesn't change the meaning, and it's part of my active dialect, though I would only use it in speech if I were being folksy and would never write it.


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## panjandrum

I have merged today's thread with the previous copious information on the same topic - found by looking up a prefix in the WR dictionary 

Greg1975:  Please remember forum rule #1 - look for the answer first.


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## mplsray

mplsray said:


> The Century Dictionary discusses the meaning under its entry for _a_ as a preposition (it is etymologically a form of _on_) on page 2 of the dictionary: Do a search for _a,_ choose the JPEG option, and then click on the "One Page>" button.
> 
> The Century represents usage from the late 19th century. Nowadays, it would be very unusual to see a verb form such as _a coming,_ as mentioned in definition e 1., with no hyphen connecting the two parts. Even back then, some people were using the hyphen.


 
The entry itself takes up a fourth of that page. Here's an excerpt, dealing with verbs of motion and with the use of a hyphen:


"(_e_)...(2) With verbs of motion: as, to go _a_ fishing; to go _a_ wooing; to go _a_ begging; to fall _a_ crying; to set _a_ going. The preposition is often joined to the noun by a hyphen, as, to go _a_-fishing, or sometimes omitted, as, to go fishing, to set going, etc."


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## mplsray

maxiogee said:


> I don't think that's the _insertion_ of something extra. Is it not the mark of the abridgement of something which shouldn't have been there to begin with? It's probably easier to explain if I change the negative to positive here - "If I had have been there". Sometimes "of" is used instead of the 'have' - particularly in Ireland —> "If I had of been there" Ouch!



On page 64 of _Mental Spaces in Grammar: Conditional Construction_s authors Barbara Dancygier and Eve Sweetser discuss what may have happened in such a case:



> "Perhaps most interesting formally, however, is the form_ hadn't a-been_ in (13). This is one of the forms which can have no etymological source in regular past-tense "layerings"; there was no form _hadn't have been_ or _had have been_, as a source of such a contracted form. Only analogy with other negative-stance uses of compound past forms can have resulted in this usage


.

The cite 13 contains the sentence "If I hadn't a-been ill, I'd a-got him away all right, and that's what I thought you'd a-done."


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## se16teddy

I think that the a- that occurs before *past *participles is a separate subject, which is discussed here: http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=712944


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## ribran

I am from Texas, and I hear this form all the time. In fact, just today a friend said to me, "As soon as the family got inside the store, the kids went a-runnin'!" I responded, ''I declare! Such chillins some folks do raise!"


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## andad

I just came across (no pun intended) this interesting thread.  The prefix a- seems to have several different etymologies.  One of the more interesting ones, though, concerns "a + present participle".  As others have noted, the Anglo-Saxon "a" or "an" prefix signifies "in" or "on" in modern English.  What I find fascinating is that this might be semantically linked to the present progressive (V+ing).  This apparently indicates that the enunciator situates us_inside_ the action as it is happening.  For example, "They were (a-)dancing when the music stopped."  The additional prefix would serve to intensify the action, making it more vivid or present.  Cool thread!


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## distant_light

<< Moderators note: New question with new example added to previous thread.  >>

This is a question about a line in a poem you probably all know:

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still _a_-flying.

My question is: is the purpose of the a-prefix to keep the rhythm of the line or does it serve something else?

And does it sound outdated to a modern ear?


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## JustKate

distant_light said:


> This is a question about a line in a poem you probably all know:
> 
> Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
> Old Time is still _a_-flying.
> 
> My question is: is the purpose of the a-prefix to keep the rhythm of the line or does it serve something else?
> 
> And does it sound outdated to a modern ear?


While _a-_ doesn't convey any extra meaning that I'm aware of, it isn't (or wasn't - more on that in a bit) confined just to poetry. So, while I don't know exactly why the poet used it here, I don't think we can say definitively that the only reason he used it was for purposes of rhythm.

As for outdated, yes it can sound pretty outdated, but I know people who still use it. In fact, I might use it myself from time to time, though when I do so, I'm usually trying to sound purposely homespun and folksy. But I do know people who use it routinely as a regular part of their speech.


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## mirla

Hello everyone, 

In the  poem 'Look up' I came across a word a-glistening. What role does this a- play? 

We put our words in order and tint our lives a-glistening 
We don't even know if anyone is listening


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## Loob

Hello mirla

Here's an earlier thread on this prefix: a-running ... prefix a- before verb. _[EDIT: link removed because threads now merged.]_


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## JustKate

Mirla, because there's some really great information in the previous thread that Loob found (and thank you, Loob ), I've added your question to the earlier thread. If you still have questions, you are welcome to ask them here.

JustKate
English Only moderator


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## mirla

Thank you JustKate and Loob. I don't have anymore questions.


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## kamilaop

Hello everybody !

My question again concerns the very tricky subject- song lyrics 

Some time ago I came across the famous Kenny Rodgers’ song _The Gambler._
According to the lyrics I found on the internet one of the lines goes :
_So we took turns _*a* _starin' out the window at the darkness._
That “a” seemed strange to me, but since many lyrics uploaded to the internet are incorrent, I let it go.

However, lately I heard the song _Comancheros_ by Claude King. These are the lyrics :
_And then the Comancheros came *a-riding* through the night_
_Stealing and *a-killing* taking everything in sight_


So it got me thinking,  where does this “a” come from ? Is it correct ? Maybe it is some grammatical rule I am not aware of ?

<Moderator note: thread now merged with an earlier one. Nat>


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## PaulQ

kamilaop said:


> _Stealing and *a-killing* taking everything in sight_.
> ... where does this “a” come from?


It comes from _"Originally cognate with or formed similarly to Old Frisian on- , Old Dutch ana- , an- (Middle Dutch ane- , aen- , Dutch aan- ), Old Saxon ana- , an- (Middle Low German an- , āne- ), Old High German ana- , an- (Middle High German ane- , German an- ),
[It was used when] Forming verbs, adverbs, and prepositions, originally with the senses ‘on’, ‘on to’."_ From the online OED.





> Is it correct?


Yes, but it is no longer used except (a) colloquially in certain dialects (b) poetically.


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## chong lee

Hi,
The quote is from the book "Treasure Island".

 John is getting angry with crew. And one of them says that. "Cross" means "to interfere with". And I think it fits that context. I did not understand the 'a' character before it with a dash.
What is it for?

"Easy all, Long John," cried Israel. "Who's a-crossin' of you?"


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## Wordnip

I'm not sure what it means: either it means _who's making you cross? _or _who's crossed you?.  _To cross someone means to oppose or thwart someone; to get on the wrong side of them. _a-crossin' _is a sort of 'rustic' form of speech, a sort of archaic expression which we rarely use today. It means nothing other, here, than _who's crossing you?_


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## sdgraham

We've discussed the "a-" form rather frequently, including:

acoming, achanging

< This thread has been merged with second linked thread.  Thank you.  Cagey, moderator. >


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## JustKate

Sdgraham is indeed correct, so I've merged your thread with one of the previous ones, chong lee. If you still have questions after looking at the answers in this thread, you're welcome to ask them here. 

JustKate
English Only moderator


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## tagoot

< Question added to existing thread.  Cagey, moderator. > 

Finally Aunt Sally stopped for a breath, but she went on. "Well, here I am a-running on this way, and you haven't told me a word about Sis or any of them. Now I'll rest a little, and you start up on your news."

This is a quote from " The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn"(abridged edition). I have not seen a expression like "a-running". Could someone help me understand this second sentence?


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## RM1(SS)

"Running on this way" - Talking and talking the way I have been.


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## tagoot

Thank you, RM1 for your precise answer. I also thank Cagey, moderator for adding this question to this thread.


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## mraisbeck

ewie said:


> Sorry for the false trail: that was just a guess on my part.
> 
> (But yes, Veraz, I'm pretty certain that Old English _ge-_ and Modern German _ge-_ are exactly the same thing, a kind of 'advance warning' that a past participle is on the way.)


consider the parallel between "wait" and "await" in English, _<<non-English removed by moderator >>_.


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## panjandrum

mraisbeck said:


> consider the parallel between "wait" and "await" in English, <<...>>.


I don't think the relationship between 'wait' and 'await' parallels the relationship between 'running' and 'a-running'.


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## Forero

The _a-_ is the same prefix as on _awake_, _asleep_, and_ alive_.


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## FelipeAntunesBio

I only know two songs that makes use of this technique: Hating (korn) and The times they are -a-  changing (Bob Dylan)


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## velisarius

In the Yale Diversity Project, they report previous studies where a-prefixing was still found in use (only white speech communities were studied) in the 1970s:



> _a_-prefixing is found in Southern American White English (Stewart 1972; Hackenberg 1973; Wolfram & Christian 1976; Wolfram 1976; Feagin 1979; Wolfram 1988), most specifically in Alabama, West Virginia and east Tennessee. Feagin (1979, p.116) mentions attestations spread throughout the United States, starting as early as 1846 (taken from Atwood 1953, Allen 1975, Wentworth 1944) and points out that Wright (1898) noticed it in varieties spoken in Scotland, Ireland and parts of England. Montgomery (2009) argues that the origin of the _a_-prefix in Appalachian English arose from the speech of settlers from southern England.
> A-prefixing  | Yale Grammatical Diversity Project: English in North America


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## maverick66

a-prefixing in gerunds comes from Old English grammar, where all gerunds followed a predictable pattern:  ge+verb+en suffix. When printing came into being, the suffix started to be spelled -ing though it was never pronounced that way before. The gerund suffix was always -en.  The ge- prefix was also generally dropped after the Norman Conquest though not entirely. With the advent of printing and literacy, a divergence emerged in the language. The educated folks dropped the prefix (ge) and started pronouncing the suffix with a new vowel sound, /ing/, while the uneducated commoners held to the old language (e.g., Guid Scots tongue prevalent in Appalacia).  Thus, the lyric "Frog went a'courtin'" or "the man went a'huntin' and a'fishin'" simply reflects older grammatical forms of largely spoken English. Because of the social class distinctions, the old, spoken forms are assumed to be low-class and uneducated, when, in fact, they are simply archaic and, in fact, more true to original English grammar than the modern language. The Guid Scots tongue retains more Old English than the modern language because it is the language of the Anglo-Saxons who fled north to Scotland after the Norman Conquest. These are the principal ancestors of Appalacia, so the old forms have been preserved. 
_<-----Video clip removed by moderator (Florentia52)----->_


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## clamor

Hi!
This thread is very interesting. I wondered - is it possible to use this prefix before a vowel (*a-eating*,* a-asking*)?
Thanks


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## ewie

Interesting question, Clamor ~ I don't remember ever seeing it used before a vowel


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## Forero

clamor said:


> Hi!
> This thread is very interesting. I wondered - is it possible to use this prefix before a vowel (*a-eating*,* a-asking*)?
> Thanks


Yes, in dialects where it is common. It sort of means "(up)on", but it is an old prefix, not a contracted form of that preposition.


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## RM1(SS)

ewie said:


> Interesting question, Clamor ~ I don't remember ever seeing it used before a vowel



Nor do I.


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## bennymix

Greg1975 said:


> The a- prefix appears in the following songs by Bob Dylan:
> "The times they're a-changing", "A hard rain's a-gonna fall".
> Is it archaic or something? Does it change the meaning of the verb somehow?



I think it just gives a folksy feel, though the 'a' suggests, in the first case, a pattern.


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## bennymix

RM1(SS) said:


> Nor do I.



Sure:
*Rebecca...The Ghost of the Cloudcroft Lodge: The Ireland Years*

https://books.google.ca/books?isbn=1480833517
E. G. Farris - 2017 - ‎Fiction
Listen up lassie...this man has _been a usin_ ya like he does one of those painted up doxies on Tralee Street. For the love of St. Theresa, I cannot believe what has ...


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## RM1(SS)

/j/ isn't a vowel.


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## bennymix

RM1(SS) said:


> /j/ isn't a vowel.



ɑː, juː spiːk aɪ-piː-eɪ !    {*}
===

{*} Ah, you speak IPA


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## kentix

*Will Watch, the Bold Smuggler: A Tale of the Coast (1845)*

_...did your companions thieve all this here wot I bin a eatin' and a drinkin' on?

Will Watch, the Bold Smuggler_


1883
_...hisself the hull v'y'ge, a-eatin', a-drinkin', a- singin', an' a-dancin'. Sich a sight ye never seed as when they broke out the cargo.*_

Google Books › books
Lippincott's Monthly Magazine: A Popular Journal of General Literature

* my partial translation to more modern spelling

_himself the whole voyage, a-eatin', a-drinkin', a- singin', an' a-dancin'. Such a sight you never saw as when they broke out the cargo.*_


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## clamor

Thank you


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## bennymix

Thanks, kentix.    A more recent example:

*Buck Owens - Then Maybe I Can Get Some Sleep Lyrics | AZLyrics.com*

https://www.azlyrics.com › B › Buck Owens Lyrics
Has someone _been a eatin_' my honeycomb. Gonna get you down to the courthouse. I'm sick and tired of bein' a man-mouse. I'll get us a licence to keep house


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## Super Saiyan

[Please note: Threads have been merged at this point.  DonnyB - moderator]

Hi, a children book titled ‘The Great Pirate Christmas Battle’, in the book, the captain pirate says ‘a-stealing’, ‘a-spying’. What does ‘a- something’ mean?

E.g. We would sail about a-stealing all the presents ol’ Santa had left out.

Thanks


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## abluter

It means* being about* stealing, spying etc. Perhaps doing *all sorts of* stealing, spying etc


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## Super Saiyan

abluter said:


> It means* being about* stealing, spying etc. Perhaps doing *all sorts of* stealing, spying etc


So ‘a-something’ means all kinds of something? ‘We wuz doin’ all we could- just stayin’ in the fight- but a-beatin’ we did take on that fateful night!’

Just another example in the book. Thanks


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## abluter

No, sorry, Super Saiyan, on second thoughts my suggestion of "All sorts of" is wrong, but I would still stick with "being about doing something", "in the process of doing something".  It's a form which is not used now, except in a jocular or ironic context.
When you get down to it, "a-stealing"  just means stealing.


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## Forero

I believe the _a_+verb+_ing_ form is properly used only as a modifier (like a participle or a prepositional phrase), not as a noun or gerund. Since the originally distinctive endings of gerunds and participles have become equivocal, the device of adding _a-_ is used by some speakers to maintain the distinction.

_I saw him arunnin' down the street._ [_Arunnin'_ = in the act of running (prepositional phrase) / (as he was) running (modifying clause)]
_I was aware of his arunnin' down the street._ [This context requires a bare gerund _running_, not a modifier.]
_I am fond of aswimmin'._ [This context requires the verbal noun _swimming_, not a modifier, and the object of a preposition is never itself a prepositional phrase.]


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## abluter

My dictionary (Concise Oxford) tells me that it signifies "in the process of".


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## acme_54

Since we are now in the festive season, I feel I should point out that perhaps the most well-known example of the form appears in the carol "Twelve days of Christmas" (10 lords a-leaping), although in that case it appears to be used mainly to maintain the rhythm.


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## Myridon

acme_54 said:


> Since we are now in the festive season, I feel I should point out that perhaps the most well-known example of the form appears in the carol "Twelve days of Christmas" (10 lords a-leaping), although in that case it appears to be used mainly to maintain the rhythm.


There's also "Here We Come a-Wassailing." In some versions, it's "a-Caroling" or even "a-Christmasing."


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## M. Parker

Mr Bones said:


> Hello, folks. I'm reading a Shirley Jackson's story -The Lottery- and I came across this expression or word or whatever it is I can't understand. Here you are:
> 
> “Thought my old man was out back stacking wood,” Mrs. Hutchinson went on, “and then I looked out the window and the kids was gone, and then I remembered it was the twenty-seventh and came *a-running.”*
> 
> 
> What does *a-running *mean? I haven't a clue, but I guess it can be a very simple thing. Could you help me?
> 
> Thank you, Bones.


I agree with Bienvenidos


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