yaawö
Ye'kwana
editALIV | yaawö |
---|---|
Brazilian standard | yaawä |
New Tribes | yaawä |
Alternative forms
editEtymology
editProbably from iyö (inanimate invisible demonstrative pronoun) + awö (“in”). Compare the construction of Trió irëme, derived from the Trió cognate of iyö and having a very similar meaning to yaawö.
Pronunciation
editParticle
edityaawö
- Then, so, and so; used in the explanation of events to indicate a transition from one to the next.
- Synonym: dünane
- Focalizes an element of a sentence by isolating it after the particle.
Usage notes
editThis particle is extremely frequent and appears in a huge variety of contexts, so that pinning down its various meanings is difficult and native speakers sometimes make comments on its overuse. It usually appears late in a clause; in the rarer occasions when it introduces a clause, it is almost always reiterated later in the sentence.
This particle is more frequent in narratives than in conversations, but it is even more frequent when the speaker organizes ideas out of context, such as in a speech in a meeting or a description of an activity that is not currently being performed.
References
edit- Cáceres, Natalia (2011) “yaawö”, in Grammaire Fonctionnelle-Typologique du Ye’kwana[1], Lyon, pages 163–164