künwanno

Ye'kwana

Etymology

Likely from forms such as Proto-Cariban *kɨwɨ (first-person inclusive dual pronoun) + *-jamo (collective suffix) + *rô (emphatic particle). Analogous forms in other Cariban languages are similarly formed from the dual/non-collective form combined with various collective and emphatic suffixes in different orders. Compare Trió kïmënjamo, Wayana kunmëlamkom, Waiwai kïwyam, Hixkaryana kàwyamo. However, this leaves the Ye'kwana -n- unexplained, unless perhaps the first element of the Ye'kwana term corresponds not to Proto-Cariban *kɨwɨ but to first-person inclusive forms such as Trió kïmë, Wayana kunmë. By surface analysis, k(ü)- (first-person inclusive prefix) +‎ *nwanno (plural personal pronoun base).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): [kɨŋwanno]

Pronoun

künwanno

the first-person inclusive plural pronoun; all of us, me and all of you, we (inclusive)

Inflection

Ye'kwana personal pronouns

	singular	dual	plural
first person exclusive	ewü,^Y üwü^D	nña	nña
first person inclusive	—	küwü	künwanno
second person	amödö,^Y ömödö^D	—	önwanno
third person	tüwü	—	tünwanno
Y. Caura River dialect. D. Cunucunuma River dialect.

References

Cáceres, Natalia (2011) “künwanno”, in Grammaire Fonctionnelle-Typologique du Ye’kwana‎^[1], Lyon, page 120
Hall, Katherine Lee (1988) The morphosyntax of discourse in De'kwana Carib, volumes I and II, Saint Louis, Missouri: PhD Thesis, Washington University, page 282
Hall, Katherine (2007) “kɨnwanno”, in Mary Ritchie Key & Bernard Comrie, editors, The Intercontinental Dictionary Series‎^[2], Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, published 2021
Meira, Sérgio (2002) “A first comparison of pronominal and demonstrative systems in the Cariban language family”, in Mily Crevels, Simon van de Kerke, Sergio Meira and Hein van der Voort, editors, Current Studies on South American Languages‎^[3], Leiden: Research School of Asian, African, and American Studies (CNWS), Leiden University, →ISBN, pages 255–275