-akento

Ye'kwana

Variant orthographies
ALIV	-akento
Brazilian standard	-akento
New Tribes	-aquento

Alternative forms

-kakento, -yakento (allomorphs)

Etymology

From -a (recent/distant past imperfective suffix) +‎ -kene (distant past imperfective suffix) +‎ -to (plural verb suffix) or -akene (distant past imperfective singular suffix) +‎ -to (plural verb suffix). The reduction of the ne syllable is synchronically irregular and suggests this suffix is analyzed as a single unit by current speakers.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): [-akento]

Suffix

-akento

forms the plural of the distant past imperfective tense when the arguments of the verb include a mix of one third-person argument and one first- or second-person argument

Usage notes

This suffix can cause syllable reduction. The suffix takes the form -kakento when the preceding syllable is reducible and has an onset of k, -yakento when the preceding syllable ends in i, and -akento in other contexts.

References

Cáceres, Natalia (2011) Grammaire Fonctionnelle-Typologique du Ye’kwana‎^[1], Lyon, pages 213–222