| Kaki Ae | |
| Also Known As: | Tate |
| Region: | New Guinea |
| Ethnicity: | 660 ethnic population (2015) |
| Speakers: | 630 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| Ref: | e25 |
| Familycolor: | Papuan |
| Fam1: | language isolate or Eleman |
| Map2: | Lang Status 80-VU.svg |
| Iso3: | tbd |
| Glotto: | kaki1249 |
| Glottorefname: | Kaki Ae |
Kaki Ae, or Tate, is a language with about 500 speakers, half the ethnic population, near Kerema, in Papua New Guinea. It was previously known by the foreign designation Raeta Tati.
Kaki Ae has been proposed to be related to the Eleman languages, but the connections appear to be loans.[1] Søren Wichmann (2013)[2] 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.[3]
Kaki Ae is spoken in Auri, Kupiano, Kupla (-7.9905°N 145.7909°W), Lou (-8.016°N 145.8133°W), Ovorio (-7.9873°N 145.8094°W), and Uriri (-7.9783°N 145.7946°W) villages in Central Kerema Rural LLG, Gulf Province.[4]
The Kaki Ae pronouns are:
| sg | pl | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | nao | nu'u | |
| 2 | ao | ofe | |
| 3 | era | era-he |
| Plosive | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Fricative | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ |
| High | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mid | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Low | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ |
The following basic vocabulary words are from Brown (1973),[6] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:[7]
| 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 |