# 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 (The Southeast Moluccas), belonging to the province of Maluku, Indonesia. It has a population of around 140.000 people (source unknown), 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 (CMP) 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 (kayos) for its rocky bottom. However, whereas the most inhabited island (Kei Kecil) is indeed a rocky atoll, the biggest island of the archipelago (Kei Besar) is a fertile volcanic island. Dutch missionaries would call the language Keiees (lit. 'Keiese'). Indonesians know the language today as Bahasa Kei/Kai, always pronounced as [ke]. 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 [eʋa:v], 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 (out of a bit more than 200) 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.
| Consonants | | Vowels and Diphthongs | |
| Phoneme | Allophones | Phoneme | Allophones |
| /b/ | [b] | /i/ | [i], [ɪ], [ə] |
| /t/ | [t] | /u/ | [u] |
| /d/ | [d] | /e/ | [e], [ə] |
| /k/ | [k] | /ɛ/ | [ɛ], [ɪ] |
| /ʔ/ | [ʔ] | /o/ | [o], [ʊ] |
| /m/ | [m] | /ɔ/ | [ɔ] |
| /n/ | [n] | /a/ | [a], [a:], [ə] |
| /ŋ/ | [ŋ] | /ɑ/ | [ɑ], [a] |
| /r/ | [r], [ɾ] | /ɛɪ/ | [ɛɪ] |
| /f/ | [f], [v] | /ɛɑ/ | [ɛɑ] |
| /h/ | [h] | /ɑɪ/ | [ɑɪ] |
| /v/ | [v], [ʋ] | /ɔi/ | [ɔi], [ui] |
| /s/ | [s] |
| /j/ | [j] |
| /w/ | [w] |
| /l/ | [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.
| | | singular | plural |
| 1st person | exclusive | jaʔau | am |
| 1st person | inclusive | jaʔau | it |
| 2nd person | 2nd person | ɔ | im |
| 3rd person | 3rd person | i | hir |
They each correspond to a verbal prefix.
| | | singular | plural |
| 1st person | exclusive | u- | m- |
| 1st person | inclusive | u- | t- |
| 2nd person | 2nd person | m- | m- |
| 3rd person | 3rd person | n- | r- |
The sentences below (Villa Rikkers, 2014) show how these forms combine.
First person singular
jɑʔau
1SG
u-
1SG
baŋil
hit
umɑt
person
hoɑrrəbran
husband:3PL.POSS
vut-
ten
ru
two
ma
ADDR
umɛɑk
shy
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.' Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help);
Second person singular
o
2SG
m-
2SG
fɪd
sell
i
3SG
ni
3SG.POSS
wɑrat
rope
waid
NEG
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
3SG
ʔn-
3SG-
ba
go
ʔn-
3SG
tun
shoot
manut
chicken
insjɛn
lazy
ʔntɪl
three
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 (addressee excluded)
ɑm
1PL.EX
bɪsbisa
all
m-
1PL.EX-
fɔklɔi
hang
lar
sail
jaʔanuŋ
1SG.POSS
ɑm bɪsbisa m- fɔklɔi lar jaʔanuŋ
1PL.EX all 1PL.EX- hang sail 1SG.POSS
'So we(excl.) hang my sail.'
First person plural (addressee included)
hɛrawɪn
Yesterday
it
1PL.IN
tə-
1PL.IN-
tavɑt
stab
ɑm
1PL.EX
warib
younger.sibling:1PL.POSS
hɛrawɪn it tə- tavɑt ɑm warib
Yesterday 1PL.IN 1PL.IN- stab 1PL.EX younger.sibling:1PL.POSS
'Yesterday, we(incl.) stabbed our(excl.) younger siblings.'
Second person plural
im
2PL
m-
2PL
ŋis
pinch
bəlabɑ
spider
bərbir
blue
ʔnru
two
im m- ŋis bəlabɑ bərbir ʔnru
2PL 2PL pinch spider blue two
'You pinch two blue spiders.'
Third person plural
hir
3PL
ʔr-
3PL
foi
plant
ŋunit
bamboo
kətkut
short
ʔntɪl
three
məhɛ
only
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/number | Prefix | Person/number | Prefix |
| 1SG | nɪŋ~(a)nuŋ | 1PL (inclusive) | did~din |
| 2SG | mu | 2PL | bir |
| 3SG | ni | 3PL | rir |
| 1PL (exclusive) | 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/number | Suffix | Example | Meaning |
| 1SG | -ŋ | limaŋ | 'my hand' |
| 2SG | -m | limam | 'your hand' |
| 3SG | -n | liman | 'the/its/his/her hand' |
| 1PL (exclusive) | -b | limab | 'our hand'(ex.) |
| 1PL (inclusive) | -d | limad | 'our hand' (in.) |
| 2PL | -b | limab | 'your hand' |
| 3PL | -r | limar | 'their hand' |

### Numerals

The numeral system uses numeral roots (NR) that combine with both numeral classifiers (CLF) and autonomous numerals (NUM). The numeral roots are given below.
| Root | Meaning | Root | Meaning |
| 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.
| Range | Structure | Illustration | Meaning |
| 1 | CLF-(NUM) | ain(mehe) | 1 |
| 2-9 | CLF-NR | ainru | 2 |
| 10 | (CLF)-NR | (ain)vut | 10 |
| 10+x | NUM-CLF-NR | vut ainmehe | 11 |
| 10*x | NUM-NR | vutfak | 40 |
| 10*x+x | NUM-NR-CLF-NR | vutnean ainnean | 66 |
| 100+x | NUM-CLF-NR | ratut ainru | 102 |
| 100+10*x | NUM-NUM-NR | ratut vutfak | 140 |
| 100+10*x+x | NUM-NUM-NR-CLF-NR | ratut vuttil ainru | 132 |
| 100*x | NUM-NR | ratlim | 500 |
| 100*x+x | NUM-NR-CLF-NR | ratru ainru | 202 |
| 100*x+10*x | NUM-NR-NUM-NR | ratnean vutfak | 640 |
| 100*x+10*x+x | NUM-NR-NUM-NR-CLF-NR | ratru vuttil ainru | 232 |