Old Iranian Preverbs

Old Iranian speakers limited the meaning of verbs through combining preverbs with them and herewith could express ideas more precisely. What we can find in references about preverbs is not sufficient and clear enough to determine the morphology, function and origin of preverbs. The purpose of this paper is to investigate twenty Old Iranian preverbs and their different forms, to evaluate their functional frequency, and to clarify their morphology, function and Indo-European origin. It will be discussed that, from a morphological point of view, naming them 'verbal prefixe's in Avestan and Sanskrit cannot be correct. It will also be clarified that preverbs have their root in a group of Proto-Indo-European particle adverbs.