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]
Ba, a state during the Zhou dynasty (in present-day Chongqing and the eastern part of Sichuan), the east of Sichuan and Chongqing Municipality, surname Ba, (bound form) abbr. for 巴勒斯坦[Ba1 le4 si1 tan3] (Palestine), 巴基斯坦[Ba1 ji1 si1 tan3] (Pakistan) or 巴西[Ba1 xi1] (Brazil)