Kaki Ae, or Tate, is a language spoken by about 500 people, half the ethnic population, near Kerema, in Papua New Guinea. It was previously known by the foreign designation Raeta Tati.
Classification Kaki Ae has been proposed to be related to the Eleman languages, but the connections appear to be loans. Søren Wichmann (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 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, Gulf Province.
Pronouns The Kaki Ae pronouns are: {| ! !!sg!!pl |- !1 |nao||nu'u |- !2 |ao||ofe |- !3 |era||era-he
Phonology +ConsonantsLabialAlveolarVelarGlottalPlosiveNasalFricative Approximant 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.) +VowelsFrontCentralBackHigh Mid Low
Vocabulary The following basic vocabulary words are from Brown (1973), as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:
{| class="wikitable sortable" ! gloss !! Kaki Ae |- | head || aro |- | hair || uʔumo |- | ear || oʔi |- | eye || ere |- | nose || noʔi |- | tooth || huʔu |- | tongue || anara |- | leg || fera |- | louse || saruta |- | dog || evera |- | bird || mini |- | egg || mini umu |- | blood || ivare |- | bone || uki |- | breast || ame |- | tree || oproro |- | man || aru |- | woman || aʔu |- | sun || lare |- | moon || fuiya |- | water || haime |- | fire || aiyeʔi |- | stone || ere |- | name || iru |- | eat || muake |- | one || okiao |- | two || uʔungka
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.
References