Lesson 7 — Grammatical Topic — A few more prefixes  

Samala has over a hundred prefixes that go with verbs. So far you've learned just a handful of them — the most common prefixes that have the most consistent meanings..
Overall, however, the verb prefixes vary a lot in meaning. There's a wide range in how clear the meaning is and how common the prefix is.
To help make this point clearer, here are some English examples that cover both ends of the range of how clear the meaning is and how common the prefix is.
At the clear end:  some prefixes have very clear meanings and you can add them to many verbs.
  English has a fairly small number of prefixes that show up before the root, such "mis–lead," "dis–like," "un–tie," "de–bug," "hyper–active,"etc. The meaning of these prefixes is fairly clear and it's easy to come up with lots of examples of each. We don't have any trouble breaking these words down into their component parts.
  In fact, you can even come up with a combination that you might never have heard before — like "un–format" — and no one bats an eye.
At the obscure end:  some prefixes are relatively uncommon and it's not easy to say what they mean.
  English has a few words — originally from Latin — with prefixes such as ob– in words like "ob–serve," "ob–struct," and "ob–tain." Even if you give it some thought, there's no apparent core of meaning for ob–.
  In addition, English has a small number of words — also mostly from Latin — where you see prefixes with stems that may not appear by themselves as independent words, such as "con–ceive," "de–ceive," and "re–ceive."
  It's not easy to say exactly what the various parts of these words mean, and we tend to think of them as single units even though historically they break down into separate elements. It's certainly not easy to say what the root  "–ceive" means here.
The situation in Samala is similar, but considerably more complex.

Examples of three of the verb prefixes
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As much as possible, these examples show the prefix in combination with a verb root that you already know, to give you more a feel for how the system works.
xal– "in or through the air"   to jump across
xelmes
xal–nowon > xonowon "to fly" < nowon "to stand"  
  xal–mes > xelmes "to jump across, jump over" < mes "to cross"  
  xal–mk–n >   xamkn    "to fly far" < mk–n "to go far"  
     
nu– "along with, taking/bringing with" to bring in, take in
nutap
  nu–kum   "to bring, take, carry" < kum "to come to, arrive"
  nu–tap   "to bring something in" < tap "to enter"
  nu–mk–n > nmkn "to take something far away" < mk–n "to go far"
aqni– "of mental activity"   to want to
aqniyw
  aqni–o   "to like, want" < o "to be good"
  aqni–wil   "to think" < wil "to be, exist"
  aqni–yw   "to want to" — see uniyw "to seek"

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