Kaki Ae, or Tate, is a language with about 500 speakers, half the ethnic population, near
Kerema
Kerema is the capital of Gulf Province, Papua New Guinea. It is located on the coast of Gulf of Papua. The Gulf region is aptly named for its concave coastline with large deltas. The Gulf area is a riparian region where many rivers from the southe ...
, in
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...
. It was previously known by the foreign designation Raeta Tati.
Classification
Kaki Ae has been proposed to be related to the
Eleman languages
The Eleman languages are a family spoken around Kerema Bay
Kerema is the capital of Gulf Province, Papua New Guinea. It is located on the coast of Gulf of Papua. The Gulf region is aptly named for its concave coastline with large deltas. The Gu ...
, but the connections appear to be loans.
Søren Wichmann
Søren Wichmann (born 1964) is a Danish linguist specializing in historical linguistics, linguistic typology, Mesoamerican languages, and epigraphy. Since June 2016, he has been employed as a University Lecturer at Leiden University Centre for Li ...
(2013)
[Wichmann, Søren. 2013]
A classification of Papuan languages
In: Hammarström, Harald and Wilco van den Heuvel (eds.), History, contact and classification of Papuan languages (Language and Linguistics in Melanesia, Special Issue 2012), 313-386. Port Moresby: Linguistic Society of Papua New Guinea. tentatively considers it to be a separate, independent group. Pawley and Hammarström (2018) treat Kaki Ae as a
language isolate
Language isolates are languages that cannot be classified into larger language families. Korean and Basque are two of the most common examples. Other language isolates include Ainu in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, and Haida in North America. The num ...
due to low cognacy rates with Eleman, and consider the few similarities shared with Eleman to be due to borrowed loanwords.
Distribution
Kaki Ae is spoken in ''Auri'', ''Kupiano'', ''Kupla'' (), ''Lou '' (), ''Ovorio'' (), and ''Uriri'' () villages in
Central Kerema Rural LLG
Central Kerema Rural LLG is a local-level government (LLG) of Gulf Province, Papua New Guinea.
Wards
*01. Uaripi (Tairuma language speakers)
*02. Mei'i
*03. Lapari
*04. Mirakere
*05. Didimaua
*06. Uriri (Kaki Ae language
Kaki Ae, or Tate, is ...
,
Gulf Province
A gulf is a large inlet from the ocean into the landmass, typically with a narrower opening than a bay, but that is not observable in all geographic areas so named. The term gulf was traditionally used for large highly-indented navigable bodie ...
.
Pronouns
The Kaki Ae pronouns are:
:
Phonology
Kaki Ae has no distinction between and . (The forms ''kaki'' and ''tate'' of the name both derive from the rather pejorative
Toaripi name for the people, ''Tati''.)
Vocabulary
The following basic vocabulary words are from Brown (1973), as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:
:
Further reading
*Clifton, John M. 1995. A grammar sketch of the Kaki Ae language. In: Albert J. Bickfield (ed.), ''Work Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, University of North Dakota Session'', 33–80. Grand Forks, North Dakota: SIL.
*Wurm, S.A. editor. ''Some Endangered Languages of Papua New Guinea: Kaki Ae, Musom, and Aribwatsa''. D-89, vi + 183 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1997.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaki Ae Language
Kaki Ae–Eleman languages
Language isolates of New Guinea
Languages of Gulf Province
Vulnerable languages