Kei language


Kei is an Austronesian language spoken in a small region of the Moluccas, a province of Indonesia.

Geography

Keiese is mainly spoken in the Kei archipelago in Maluku Tenggara, belonging to the province of Maluku, Indonesia. It has a population of around 140.000 people, half of which lives in the only two cities, Tual and Langgur: respectively the Islamic and Christian capitals of the archipelago. Both cities belong to the Kei Kecil district. The other half of the population lives in the coastal villages of the archipelago.

Classification

Keiese is an Austronesian language, traditionally grouped in the Central Malayo-Polynesian language family that knows several subgroups, one of which is Kei-Tanimbar. This tiny family splits up one more time into Yamdena-Onin and Kei-Fordata, the latter of which contains Keiese. The main dialects are the Northern and Southern Mainland dialects, spoken on Kei Besar, and the Islands Dialect, spoken on the other islands. The Islands Dialect has some sub dialects, of which the Kei Kecil dialect has the most speakers and prestige. All grammatical descriptions in this article are derived from the Kei Kecil dialect.

Name

Keiese is referred to with different names derived from at least three backgrounds. “Kei” is assumed to be coined by Portuguese colonists. They called it stone for its rocky bottom. However, whereas the most inhabited island is indeed a rocky atoll, the biggest island of the archipelago is a fertile volcanic island. Dutch missionaries would call the language “Keiees”. Indonesians know the language today, as “Bahasa Kei/Kai”, always pronounced as . Ethnologue mentions a second way to refer to the language: “Saumlaki”. Saumlaki is a small island that belongs to the Tanimbar archipelago, of which its languages are not proven to be directly historically related to Kei. The third way to talk about the language is in the language itself. The pronunciation is best transcribed as , which cannot be translated for simply being a proper name. Spellings that are used by scholars are Eiwav, Eivav, Ewaw, Ewab, Ewaf, Evav, Ewav and Evaf, for it is arguable whether the two consonants are phonemically distinct or not.

Status

It is difficult to estimate the number of speakers of Keiese. According to Ethnologue, the number lies around 85,000, out of a total of 140,000 inhabitants. In 1985, Tetelepta et al. wrote that the total number of Keiese speakers in the two capitals of Kei Kecil and the capital of Kei Besar was 12,353 people. It is likely that this number must be doubled when including the speakers in coastal villages. Ma Kang Yuen however, who studied the language in 154 villages on Kei Kecil for several years in the first decade of the 21st century, claims to have never met a fluent speaker. This was later confirmed by Yuri Villa Rikkers, who visited the archipelago for a brief linguistic study in 2014.

Linguistic features

Phonology

Keiese knows approximately 16 consonants, 8 vowels and 4 diphthongs. The Keiese people have not yet concluded on an official spelling system.
ConsonantsVowels and Diphthongs
PhonemeAllophonesPhonemeAllophones
/b//i/, ,
/t//u/
/d//e/,
/k//ɛ/,
/ʔ//o/
/m//ɔ/
/n//a/, ,
/ŋ//ɑ/,
/r//ɛɪ/
/f/, /ɛɑ/
/h//ɑɪ/
/ʋ/, /ɔi/,
/s/--
/j/--
/w/--
/l/--

As is common among Austronesian languages, consonant clusters are usually avoided. Word stress is usually found on the last syllable.

Verbal inflection

Verbal Inflection in Keiese is about agreement marking on the verb, based on the person and number of the subject of a sentence. These subjects may be formed by nouns or by free personal pronouns that know a clusivity distinction as is common in Austronesian languages.
Person/numberPronounPerson/numberPronoun
1SGjaʔau1PL it
2SGɔ2PLim
3SGi3PLhir
1PL am

They each correspond to a verbal prefix.
Person/numberPrefixPerson/numberPrefix
1SGu-1PL t-
2SGm-2PLm-
3SGn-3PLr-
1PL m-

The sentences below show how these forms combine.
First person singular
jɑʔau u- baŋil umɑt hoɑrrəbran vut- ru ma umɛɑk
1SG 1SG hit person husband:3PL.POSS ten two ADDR shy
“So I hit twenty shy husbands.”
Second person singular
o m- fɪd i ni wɑrat waid
2SG 2SG sell 3SG 3SG.POSS rope NEG
“You don’t sell his rope.”
Third person singular
i ʔn- ba ʔn- tun manut insjɛn ʔntɪl
3SG 3SG- go 3SG shoot chicken lazy three
“He’s going to shoot three lazy chickens again.”
First person plural
ɑm bɪsbisa m- fɔklɔi lar jaʔanuŋ
1PL.EX all 1PL.EX- hang sail 1SG.POSS
“So we hang my sail.”
First person plural
hɛrawɪn it tə- tavɑt ɑm warib
Yesterday 1PL.IN 1PL.IN- stab 1PL.EX younger.sibling:1PL.POSS
“Yesterday, we stabbed our younger siblings.”
Second person plural
im m- ŋis bəlabɑ bərbir ʔnru
2PL 2PL pinch spider blue two
“You pinch two blue spiders.”
Third person plural
hir ʔr- foi ŋunit kətkut ʔntɪl məhɛ
3PL 3PL plant bamboo short three only
“They only plant three small bamboo plants.”

Possession

Keiese discriminates between alienable and unalienable nouns by using different strategies to express possession. Alienable nouns select possessive pronouns.
Person/numberPrefixPerson/numberPrefix
1SGnɪŋ~nuŋ1PL did~din
2SGmu2PLbir
3SGni3PLrir
1PL mam'

For example, "my boat" must be translated as "nɪŋ habo", for boats may have different owners at different times. Unalienable nouns select possessive suffixes.
Person/numberSuffixExampleMeaning
1SG-ŋlimaŋ"my hand"
2SG-mlimam"your hand"
3SG-nliman"the/its/him/her hand"
1PL -blimab"our hand"
1PL -dlimad"our hand"
2PL-blimab"your hand"
3PL-rlimar''"their hand"

Numerals

The numeral system uses numeral roots that combine with both numeral classifiers and autonomous numerals. The numeral roots are given below.
RootMeaningRootMeaning
ain"one"nean~nɛan~nɛ:n"six"
ru"two"fit~fid"seven"
til~tɪl~tel"three"ʋau~wau"eight"
fak~fa:k"four"siw"nine"
lim~lɪm"five"

The formation of numbers is illustrated in the table below.
RangeStructureIllustrationMeaning
1CLF-ain1
2-9CLF-NRainru2
10-NRvut10
10+xNUM-CLF-NRvut ainmehe11
10*xNUM-NRvutfak40
10*x+xNUM-NR-CLF-NRvutnean ainnean66
100+xNUM-CLF-NRratut ainru102
100+10*xNUM-NUM-NRratut vutfak140
100+10*x+xNUM-NUM-NR-CLF-NRratut vuttil ainru132
100*xNUM-NRratlim500
100*x+xNUM-NR-CLF-NRratru ainru202
100*x+10*xNUM-NR-NUM-NRratnean vutfak640
100*x+10*x+xNUM-NR-NUM-NR-CLF-NRratru vuttil ainru232

Grammars and sketches