wötunnö

Ye'kwana

Variant orthographies

ALIV	wötunnö
Brazilian standard	wätunnä
New Tribes	wätunnä
historical ad hoc	watunna

Etymology

From a verb stem affixed with w- (intransitive prefix) and -nö (infinitive suffix). The stem is said by Guss to be ultimately related to a'deu (“word”), but this does not seem morphologically justifiable.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [wətunnə]

Noun

wötunnö (possessed wötunnöi)

1. the mythology and stories of the Ye’kwana; the Ye’kwana oral tradition
2. story, history, tale, myth

Derived terms

• ewotunnöicha
• wötunnö'kö

 

References

• Cáceres, Natalia (2011) “wötunnö”, in Grammaire Fonctionnelle-Typologique du Ye’kwana‎^[1], Lyon
• Hall, Katherine Lee (1988) The morphosyntax of discourse in De'kwana Carib, volumes I and II, Saint Louis, Missouri: PhD Thesis, Washington University, page 311
• de Civrieux, Marc (1980)  David M. Guss, transl., Watunna: An Orinoco Creation Cycle, San Francisco: North Point Press, →ISBN, page vii, 2
• Guss, David M. (1989) To Weave and Sing: Art, Symbol, and Narrative in the South American Rain Forest, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, →ISBN, pages 1–3