Kele language (New Guinea)

For other uses, see Kele language (disambiguation).

Kele or Gele’ is a language spoken in the easterly section of inland Manus Island, New Guinea. Its name comes from the Kele word for "there".

Kele
Native to	Papua New Guinea
Region	Manus Island
Native speakers	1,500 (2020)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Admiralty Islands Eastern Admiralty Islands Manus East Manus Kele
Language codes
ISO 639-3	sbc
Glottolog	kele1258

Phonology

The syllable structure of Kele is (C)V(C).

Consonants

		Labial		Alveolar	Velar		Glottal
		plain	labialized		plain	labialized
Nasal		m	mʷ	n	ŋ	ŋʷ
Stop	voiceless	p	pʷ	t	k	kʷ	ʔ
	voiced	b		d
Fricative				s			h
Approximant				j		w
Rhotic				r
Lateral				l

/b d/ are often trilled [bʙ dr]. Additionally, /b d/ are prenasalized when not occurring before another consonant.

Kele has five vowels: a, e, i, o and u. Vowels can also be elongated. Ross (2002) describes this vowel length as non-phonemic, and instead as part of one of four different disyllabic patterns in words. He also notes that no word contains more than one long vowel.

Grammar

Kele has eleven pronouns, distinguishing first person inclusive and exclusive pronouns as well as dual and plural number. Different versions of each pronoun can be prefixed to show the subject and suffixed to show possession. Nearly all verbs require a preceding subject prefix; however, a few verbs instead require a possessor suffix to indicate the subject.

Sample vocabulary

Nouns

Sample Nouns in Kele

Word	Gloss
petlé	bed
sal	road
um	house
pat	stone

Verbs

Sample Verbs in Kele

Word	Gloss
penow	learn
te-penow	teach
mat	die
te-mete-i	kill

External links

• Kaipuleohone's Robert Blust collection includes notes on Kele