A-roving, a-walking, a-verb participle: what is this called? [duplicate]

Is there a name for the archaic form of a-verb participle, as in a-walking?

It appears in poetry and songs, for example,

As I was a-walking down Paradise Street...

Time is the stream I go a-fishing in.

Solution 1:

There is a name for this linguistic phenomenon: according to Yale Grammatical Diversity Project (link), it is called a-prefixing.

A-prefixing is a phenomenon where a prefix, a-, attaches to a verbal form with the suffix -ing, as in the following Appalachian English examples from Wolfram (1976):

1)  a.  I know he was a-tellin' the truth, but I was a-comin' home.
     b.  Well, she's a-gettin' the black lung now, ain't she?

The verbs themselves are said to have a-prefixed forms (source: W. Wolfram, 'Toward a Description of A-Prefixing in Appalachian English', American Speech Vol. 51, No. 1/2, Spring - Summer, 1976.)