Where does “cenʼłghatsʼi” come from?

cenʼłghatsʼi (Ahtna) comes from Ahtna cen, from Ahtna cʼ-, from Ahtna ł-, from Proto-Athabaskan *-ɬ — Forms instrumental nouns from verbs.

cenʼłghatsʼi (Ahtna): carpenter ant

Definitions

  1. carpenter ant

Ancestry of “cenʼłghatsʼi”, step by step

cenʼłghatsʼi traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.

via Ahtna cen

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Ahtnacenstick
2Ahtnacʼ-Marks an indefinite possessor; one's. Often appears lexicalized in nouns
3Ahtnał-The ł-classifier, one of four classifiers which obligatorily appear in every Ahtna verb with a variety of purposes. The ł-classifier has the following uses
4Proto-Athabaskan*-ɬForms instrumental nouns from verbs

via Ahtna ghaatsʼ

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Ahtnaghaatsʼto gnaw
Every word from Proto-Athabaskan *-ɬ →Every word from Ahtna ł- →Every word from Ahtna cʼ- →