prefix used before monosyllabic names, kinship terms etc to indicate familiarity, used in transliteration, (bound form) Afghanistan (abbr. for 阿富汗[A1 fu4 han4]), (bound form) Albania (abbr. for 阿爾巴尼亞|阿尔巴尼亚[A1 er3 ba1 ni2 ya4]), (bound form) Algeria (abbr. for 阿爾及利亞|阿尔及利亚[A1 er3 ji2 li4 ya4]), (bound form) Argentina (abbr. for 阿根廷[A1 gen1 ting2]), also pr. [a4]