adekato

Ye'kwana
FWOTD – 23 August 2023

Etymology

The second element is ökato (“shadow, reflection, spirit, double”), with front-grade ablaut implying that it is preceded by either a first- or second-person prefix or a noun. The first element has been variously identified as either the allomorph ay- of the second-person prefix ö-, in which case the meaning would be ‘your spirit/double’;[1] or else as related to the root found in ada'komo (“mortals, ephemeral creatures”) and ade (“ephemeral”), in which case the meaning would be ‘ephemeral spirit/double’.[2] In either case the predicted Caura River dialect form would have y instead of d.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): [aɾ̠eːkato]

Noun

adekato (Cunucunuma River dialect)

  1. dream (seen as the journey of the önu ekato (“eye spirit”) outside the body)
  2. the önu ekato (“eye spirit”) itself while dreaming

References
  • de Civrieux, Marc (1980) “adekato”, in  David M. Guss, transl., Watunna: An Orinoco Creation Cycle, San Francisco: North Point Press, →ISBN
  • 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 50, 55, 56, 229: “adekato”
  1. Gongora, Majoí Fávero (2017) Ääma ashichaato: replicações, transformações, pessoas e cantos entre os Ye’kwana do rio Auaris‎, corrected edition, São Paulo: Universidade de São Paulo, page 250
  2. Lauer, Matthew Taylor (2005) Fertility in Amazonia: Indigenous Concepts of the Human Reproductive Process Among the Ye’kwana of Southern Venezuela‎, Santa Barbara: University of California, page 206
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