like-alike, rise-arise etc.

[Skalkaz]

There are many pair of words such as: like-alike, wake-awake, rise-arise, live-alive etc.

What's the different of these? Does everwhat general rule exist or maybe subrule ? These beginnings a- have a common etymology? I'm interested in a suitable link also but I cann't how I search for it.

remark: I know the Greek privative "a-" (such as symmetry -- asymmetry) from my native language (Hungarian) well. But above are others.

[pyoung]

Dear Skalkaz:The following is taken from the Online Etymological Dictionary. It is by no means a complete answer, but perhaps it's a start:

a- (1) in native (derived from O.E.) words, it most commonly represents O.E. an "on" (see a (2)), as in alive, asleep, abroad, ashore, etc., forming adjectives and adverbs from nouns; but it also can be M.E. of, as in anew, abreast (1599); or a reduced form of O.E. pp. prefix ge-, as in aware; or the O.E. intens. a-, as in arise, awake, ashame, marking a verb as momentary, a single event. In words from Romanic languages, often it represents L. ad- "to, at."
Best wishes,
Petra

[Dr. Jamshid Ibrahim]

You have already raised this issue at Lingforum. I believe the information provided there gives you some insight. If you need more maybe you can raise it again at WordReference Forums
or
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