What's the grammar behind A'warring, from the lyrics of Symphony of Destruction by Megadeth?
It's the first time I'm seeing the use of such apostrophe.
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The appearance of an /a/ in front of a verb+ing usually means an ongoing or iterative form of the verb's action. It is a common aspect marking in some dialects of English. It used to be far more common than it is now. As far as orthography goes, that has never been properly settled - Frog went acourtin'. A prefixing - Yale Grammar – Phil Sweet Aug 13 '20 at 19:29
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azlyrics.com/lyrics/megadeth/symphonyofdestruction.html – Hot Licks Aug 14 '20 at 1:55
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I'll note that music lyrics are off-topic. – Hot Licks Aug 14 '20 at 1:55
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The a- prefix to gerunds or participles of verbs (of motion, in particular), often as an intensifier, is rather old-fashioned or archaic in British English, but still common in certain regional US dialects. An apostrophe can be used in place of a dash.
answered Aug 13 '20 at 19:39
