privative a with finite verb

[George Thompson]

Hello George,

The un- in 'undo' is not a reflex of alpha privative, although maybe 
there is some influence of the latter on it.  It is a weak form of the 
Old English prefix on-, ond-, and-, meaning 'against'.  See anti-. 

See for example the American Heritage Dictionary under un- (2), and in 
the Indo-European Roots section, see *ant-. 

Best wishes,
George Thompson

George Hart wrote:

> It may be worth remarking that Dravidian languages (like many other  
> families) puts the negative into the verb.  It's also notable that  
> Germanic can put the alpha-privative onto the beginning of the verb  
> (undo).  I don't know enough about IE to say whether the Sanskrit  
> phenomenon could be a reflection of either one of these things.   
> George Hart