Kaytetye (also spelt Kaititj, Gaididj, Kaiditj, Kaytej) is an

Australian Aboriginal language The Indigenous languages of Australia number in the hundreds, the precise number being quite uncertain, although there is a range of estimates from a minimum of around 250 (using the technical definition of 'language' as non-mutually intellig ...

spoken in the Northern Territory north of

Alice Springs Alice Springs ( aer, Mparntwe) is the third-largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Known as Stuart until 31 August 1933, the name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William Whitfield Mills after Alice, Lady Todd (''née'' Al ...

by the

Kaytetye people The Kaytetye, also written Kaititya, and pronounced ''kay-ditch'', are an Aboriginal Australian people who live around Barrow Creek and Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory. Their neighbours to the east are the Alyawarre, to the south the Anm ...

, who live around Barrow Creek and

Tennant Creek Tennant Creek ( wrm, Jurnkkurakurr) is town located in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is the seventh largest town in the Northern Territory, and is located on the Stuart Highway, just south of the intersection with the western termin ...

. It belongs to the Arandic subgroup of the Pama-Nyungan languages and is related to Alyawarra, which is one of the

Upper Arrernte Arrernte or Aranda (; ) or sometimes referred to as Upper Arrernte (Upper Aranda), is a dialect cluster in the Arandic language group spoken in parts of the Northern Territory, Australia, by the Arrernte people. Other spelling variations are ...

dialects. It has an unusual

phonology Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...

and there are no known dialects. The language is considered to be threatened; it is used for face-to-face communication within all generations, but it is losing users, with only 120 speakers of the language in the 2016 census. The Kaytetye have (or had) a well-developed sign language known as Akitiri or Eltye eltyarrenke. Kendon, A. (1988) ''Sign Languages of Aboriginal Australia: Cultural, Semiotic and Communicative Perspectives.'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 60 Languages of Central Australia - map

Phonology

Kaytetye is phonologically unusual in a number of ways. Words start with vowels and end with schwa; full CV(C) syllables only occur within a word, as in the word 'three' (schwa is spelled , unless initial, in which case it is not written and often not pronounced). Stress falls on the first full syllable. There are only two productive vowels, but numerous consonants, including pre-stopped and pre-palatalized consonants.Koch, 2006. "Kaytetye". In the ''Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics'', 2nd ed.

Consonants

Consonants occur plain and

labialized Labialization is a secondary articulatory feature of sounds in some languages. Labialized sounds involve the lips while the remainder of the oral cavity produces another sound. The term is normally restricted to consonants. When vowels involve ...

. is phonemically . In the orthography, is written .

Vowels

is marginal. Two-vowel systems are unusual, but occur in closely related

Arrernte Arrernte (also spelt Aranda, etc.) is a descriptor related to a group of Aboriginal Australian peoples from Central Australia. It may refer to: * Arrernte (area), land controlled by the Arrernte Council (?) * Arrernte people, Aboriginal Australi ...

as well as in some Northwest Caucasian languages. It seems that the vowel system derives from an earlier one with the typical Australian , but that *u lost its roundedness to neighboring consonants, resulting in the labialized series of consonants, while *i lost its frontness (palatal-ness) to other consonants as well, resulting in some cases in the prepalatalized series.

Grammar

Kin terms are obligatorily possessed, though with grammatically singular pronouns. There is a dyadic suffix as well: Dual and plural pronouns distinguish

clusivity In linguistics, clusivity is a grammatical distinction between ''inclusive'' and ''exclusive'' first-person pronouns and verbal morphology, also called ''inclusive " we"'' and ''exclusive "we"''. Inclusive "we" specifically includes the addressee ...

as well as

moiety Moiety may refer to: Chemistry * Moiety (chemistry), a part or functional group of a molecule ** Moiety conservation, conservation of a subgroup in a chemical species Anthropology * Moiety (kinship), either of two groups into which a society is ...

(or 'section') and generation. That is, for a male speaker, different pronouns are used for ''I and my sibling, grandparent, grandchild'' (even generation, same moiety), ''I and my father, I and my brother's child'' (odd generation, same moiety), and ''I and my mother, spouse, sister's child'' (opposite moiety). This results in twelve pronouns for 'we': That is, root ''ay-'', dual suffix ''-la'' or plural ''-na'', exclusive infix ', an irregular nasal for even generation, and a suffix for same moiety ''-ke'' or opposite moiety ''-nthe''. Verbs include incorporated former verbs of motion that indicate direction and relative timing of someone, usually the subject of the verb. There are differences depending on whether the verb is transitive or intransitive:

People

* Erlikilyika (Jim Kite) learnt to speak Kaytetye when working on the

Overland Telegraph Line The Australian Overland Telegraph Line was a telegraphy system to send messages over long distances using cables and electric signals. It spanned between Darwin, in what is now the Northern Territory of Australia, and Adelaide, the capital o ...

, and worked as an interpreter for anthropologists and explorers Spencer and Gillen.

Phonology

Consonants

Vowels

Grammar

People

References

Further reading