ön-

From the ö- stem of a Proto-Finno-Ugric third-person singular pronoun (present-day ő), with the obsolete pronoun suffix -n.^[1]

• IPA^(key):

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ön-

1. self-

   ‎ön- + ‎életrajz (“biography”) → ‎önéletrajz (“autobiography”)

From the noun ön (“front”).

• IPA^(key): /œn/,

ön-

1. proto-

   ‎ön- + ‎yıldız (“star”) → ‎önyıldız (“protostar”)

   ‎ön- + ‎Cermence (“Germanic”) → ‎Ön Cermence (“Proto-Germanic”)

2. pre-, before

   ‎ön- + ‎görü (“sight”) → ‎öngörü (“prediction”)

   ‎ön- + ‎sezi (“sense, feeling”) → ‎önsezi (“gut feeling”)

• on-, an-, öm-, öni- (allomorphs)

Cognates are found in certain other Cariban languages, but not in any languages of the family outside Venezuela. Compare Panare ën- accompanying a negation and Akawaio ön-, Tamanaku ën- accompanying an imperative.

• IPA^(key):

ön-

1. Marks a negated transitive verb with a third-person object/patient, forming a negative circumfix with -'da.
2. Marks a transitive verb in admonitive mood with a third-person object/patient, forming an admonitive circumfix with -'no.
3. Marks a transitive verb in prohibitive mood with a third-person object/patient or with a first-person object/patient and second-person subject/agent, forming a prohibitive circumfix with -i.
4. Optionally marks a transitive verb in imperative, jussive, or rogative mood to lend it a sociative meaning, indicating an action to be performed with others at the speaker’s request, and forming a circumfix with -kö, -iye, or -'ñojo respectively.

This prefix comes between the person marker and the verb stem. However, when used with -'da it does not appear with any other person markers, taking the role of third-person marker itself. By contrast, with -'no it appears alongside person markers of series I. With sociative meaning it also appears alongside person markers.

The form taken by this prefix depends on the first syllable of the stem it attaches to:

• ön- if the first syllable begins with a vowel or consonant other than m, j, a, or e and its vowel is anything but o or u.
• on- if the first syllable begins with a vowel or consonant and its vowel is o or u.
• an- if the first syllable begins with a vowel a or e.
• öm- if the first syllable begins with a consonant m or j.
• öni- if the first syllable begins with two consonants.

Additionally, if the verb stem begins with y, the y is assimilated to become a nasal ñ.

With certain speakers, the sociative meaning has also been found with other tense/aspect/mood verb forms, and it may be that its use is not restricted to co-occurring with the three suffixes given above. On the other hand, it is not clear whether this sociative meaning occurs at all in the Cunucunuma River dialect or only the Caura River dialect.

• Cáceres, Natalia (2011) “ön-”, in Grammaire Fonctionnelle-Typologique du Ye’kwana‎, Lyon, pages 125, 203–208