Whereas the regular pluralization in English involves adding-s or-es, English words derived from a Latin/Greeketymon where the Latin/Greek would pluralize from-on (Greek) or-um (Latin) to -a do not always do so. Usage of -a instead of -s differs between words: sometimes the two are interchangeable (e.g.memorandums/memoranda,polyhedrons/polyhedra), sometimes one is far more common than the other (e.g.neurons overneura,automata overautomatons), and sometimes one is completely absent from usage (e.g.bacteria over bacteriums,dendrons over dendra)
The worddata is etymologically the plural ofdatum but is commonly regarded as an uncountable noun.
I love to sing-a / about the moon-a and the June-a and the spring-a, / I love to sing-a / about a sky of blue-a, or a tea for two-a.
1980s, Herb Owen, “Wanna”, inKids Sing Praise[3], performed by Kids Sing Praise:
I wanna wanna wanna wanna wanna wanna really wanna be just like the Lord So every day Im gonna gonna read the Book and rest upon-a God's own holy Word Of good in me there's none-a none-a that's okay because I'm gonna trust upon the work that's done-a on the Cross and Jesus is the one-a one-a God the Father's Son-a Son-a and my sin He cures!
1981, Colin Hay, Ron Strykert, performed by Men At Work,Down Under:
Buying bread from a man in Brussels He was six-foot-four and full of muscle I said, "Do you speak-a my language?" He just smiled and gave me a Vegemite sandwich[…]
2014, Don Pendleton,California Hit, Open Road Media,→ISBN:
"I'm-a tell-a you why you better be. I named you in my will, Franco."
The suffix-a is usually described as an article. However, its usage is not equivalent to that of Englishthe ora. In Basque, every nominal phrase must carry a determiner, which usually takes the final position in the phrase. Although many others exist,-a is the default determiner which introduces no additional meaning. Compare the following sentences. In the first two, the determiners (-a andhau(“this”)) apply to the noun phraseetxe handi(“big house”); while in the last two they apply separately toetxe(“house”) andhandi(“big”):
Etxe handia da. ―It is a big house.
Etxe handihau da. ―It isthis big house.
Etxea handia da. ―The house is big.
Etxehau handia da. ―This house is big.
In Standard Basque, nouns ending in-a in their indefinite form (known in Basque asa itsatsia(literally“attached a”)) don't change when the article is added:
From theProto-Uralic*sᴕ̈ third-person personal pronoun of the ancestor language after it was appended to the word of possession. According to some linguists this attachment happened in the Proto-Uralic era, while others think it happened much later when the Hungarian language became independent.[1]
(with a singularpossessor) …-'s,of …(third-person singular, single possession)
Anna háza(“Anna’s house”),a felkelő nap háza(“the houseof the rising sun”)Anna élete(“Anna’s life”),a város élete(“the lifeof the city”)a király palotája(“the king’s palace”)a ház kapuja(“the gateof the house”)Anna kertje(“Anna’s garden”),a tulipán kertje(“the gardenof the tulip”)
(with a plural possessor) …-s’,of …-s(third-person plural, single possession)
(personal suffix)[from the end of the 12th century]
Third-person singular personal suffix in back-vowel verbs. Today it can be found in the third-person singular definite forms (indicative past and imperative conjugations) as part of the suffix-ja/-je,-ta/-te.
tud →tudja(“he/she should know it (subjunctive mood)”)
kér(“to request, ask for sth”) →kérte(“he/she requested it”)
kér →kérje(“he/she should request it (subjunctive mood)”)
Third-person singular personal suffix in back-vowel conjugated infinitives and in the declined and postposition forms of the third-person personal pronounő(“he/she/it”).
tanulni(“to study”) →tanulnia kell(“he/she must study”, literally“it is necessary for him/her to study”)
kérni(“to request, ask for”) →kérnie kell(“he/she must request [it]”, literally“it is necessary for him/her to request”)
-a is added to back-vowel words ending in a consonant
-e is added to front-vowel words ending in a consonant
-ja is added to back-vowel words ending in a consonant or a vowel. Final-a changes to-á-; final-o changes to-ó-.
-je is added to front-vowel words ending in a consonant or a vowel. Final-e changes to-é-; final-ö changes to-ő-.
This suffix (in all forms) is normally used for the third-personsingular possessive (single possession) but, after an explicit plural possessor, it also expresses the third-personplural possessive (single possession), e.g. “the children’s ball”(a gyerekek labdája). If the possessor is implicit (not named, only marked by a suffix), the plural possessive suffix must be used, e.g. “their ball” (a labdájuk, see-juk andits variants).
First attested in 1055. It can be traced back to Proto-Uralic *-i̮ which with the word-final vowel created the diphthong -ai̮/-ei̮. This had simplified to -á/-é, finally in the Old Hungarian era it had shortened to -a/-e. It was a productive suffix at that time, the back-vowel variant was used even in front-vowel words such as the Old Hungarian female given namesFehéra andSzépa, derived fromfehér(“light in color”) andszép(“beautiful”), respectively.[1]
(diminutive suffix) The back-vowel variant of the-a/-e diminutive suffix pair. In the past it could be found in common nouns, as well, but today it is used mostly in given names.
cic(“the sound for calling a cat”) →cica(“kitten”)
(personal suffix,archaic)Used to form the third-person singular indicative past indefinite, for back-vowel verbs. The front-vowel version is-e. The suffix currently used in this place is-t,-tt, or-ott. For the full paradigm, see theusage template.
Along with its front-vowel counterpart-e, from the diphthongs-ai̮/-ei̮, developing to-á/-é, then shortened to this form by the end of the early Old Hungarian period. After the participle suffix became fixed as-ó/-ő, the remaining words suffixed with-a/-e underwent conversion; some became adjectives, others, nouns.[1]
(obsolete participle suffix)Synonym of-ó(present-participle suffix)From a synchronic perspective, it can be viewed as a nominal-forming suffix, preserved in some adjectives and nouns (see below). No longer productive. Its front-vowel version is-e.
One may elide the finala of the adjectives, but with the condition not to produce accumulation from the consonants. One advise to use the elision mainly with the derivatived adjectives and particularly when they finish with-al-(a).[1]
FromProto-Italic*-ā, fromProto-Indo-European*-éh₂, fromProto-Indo-European*-h₂(suffix originally used to form collective nouns, extended in Late PIE to also be a marker of feminine gender). For the use to form masculine agent nouns from verb roots, compare Latinpoeta from Ancient Greekποιητής(poiētḗs).
1. Certain masculine nouns ending in-a, especially those ending in-cola and-gena, sometimes have a short genitive plural form ending in-um instead of-ārum.
2. Feminine nouns such asfīlia(“daughter”) that have a second-declension masculine counterpart sometimes take the ending-ābus instead of-īs in the dative and ablative plural to avoid ambiguity (sincefīliīs could be misunderstood as the dative/ablative plural offīlius(“son”)). Forms in-ābus are attested earliest for the nounsfīlia anddea(“goddess”), and later on for others such aslīberta(“freedwoman”),equa(“mare”) andanima.
Katarzyna Izabela Wojtylak (2017)A grammar of Murui (Bue): a Witotoan language of Northwest Amazonia.[4], Townsville: James Cook University press (PhD thesis), page81
Though it was common in Proto-Germanic and Proto-West Germanic, in Old English this ending is restricted to only a few adverbs, among themsōna(“immediately”) andġeāra(“long ago”). The competing suffix-e is much more common, along with-līċe.
Anallomorph of-iu. It derives from Proto-Celtic*-is, the neuter of*-yūs.-is was extended to-ais thanks to arebracketing of Proto-Celtic*mais(“more”) from*ma-is to*m-ais (neuter of*māyūs from which Old Irishmó).[1]
^Jasanoff, Jay (1988–1990) “The origin of the Celtic comparative type OIr. tressa, MW trech ‘stronger’”, inDie Sprache[2], volume34, published1991, pages171-189
Henrik Liljegren, Naseem Haider (2011) “-a”, inPalula Vocabulary (FLI Language and Culture Series; 7)[5], Islamabad, Pakistan: Forum for Language Initiatives,→ISBN
Henrik Liljegren, Naseem Haider (2011) “-a”, inPalula Vocabulary (FLI Language and Culture Series; 7)[6], Islamabad, Pakistan: Forum for Language Initiatives,→ISBN
Henrik Liljegren, Naseem Haider (2011) “-a”, inPalula Vocabulary (FLI Language and Culture Series; 7)[7], Islamabad, Pakistan: Forum for Language Initiatives,→ISBN
Henrik Liljegren, Naseem Haider (2011) “-a”, inPalula Vocabulary (FLI Language and Culture Series; 7)[8], Islamabad, Pakistan: Forum for Language Initiatives,→ISBN
Henrik Liljegren, Naseem Haider (2011) “-a”, inPalula Vocabulary (FLI Language and Culture Series; 7)[9], Islamabad, Pakistan: Forum for Language Initiatives,→ISBN
The third-person imperative is not used with third person pronouns but rather withvocê, which is a second-person pronoun but always takes third-person conjugation.
The suffix is also used with feminine adjectives in the nominative and accusative cases to make the articulated definite form, often for emphasis, and it is used before the noun it modifies:
Inherited fromLatin-eam,Latin-am, andLatin-iam the first-person singular present active subjunctive endings of second, third, and fourth conjugation verbs, respectively; and fromLatin-eat,Latin-at, andLatin-iat, the third-person singular present active subjunctive ending of second, third, and fourth conjugation verbs, respectively.
forms the first- and third-person singular (also used withusted) singular present subjunctive mood of '-er and-ir verbs, also used for the imperative mood ofusted
comer(“to eat”) + -a → aunque yocoma(“even if I ate”)
The language noun sense originally comes from the definite adjective +tunga(“tongue; language”). Thussvenska(“Swedish”) was originallysvenska tungan (the Swedish tongue)
On adjectives: Traditionally, if the noun is in the definite singular form it should not refer to a male human if it uses the suffix-a. If it refers to such a person, the suffix should instead be-e, but one should note that this rule is not universally adhered to – in particular dialects of northern Sweden do not recognize the-e suffix at all, but use-a in all instances.
Definite plural suffix forneuter nouns of the fourth declension with regular plurals in -n, e.g.äpplen(“apples”) + -a → äpplena(“the apples”); see also-na.
In informal/dialectal usage,-a may be used instead of-en to form the definite plural of the irregular fourth-declension nounsöron(“ears”),ögon(“eyes”).
Amorpheme used to mark thegenitivesingular of aword (such as anoun,adjective orpronoun). It is also the most common morpheme used in creating innumerable compound words, some of which can be very long
Like the more formal-af, this triggers causes final b, d and g to mutate to p, t and c, respectively. For example, the superlative ofteg(“fair”) isteca.
This suffix can cause syllable reduction. The suffix takes the form-ka when the preceding syllable is reducible and has an onset ofk,-ya when the preceding syllable ends ini, and-a in other contexts.
When marking the past imperfective, this suffix never occurs alone but is always accompanied by other suffixes bearing tense/aspect or at least number information. Conversely, when marking the nonpast tense, it occurs alone without other tense/aspect markers, though it can form a plural-aato.
