קניטה

Kanite is a Trans-New Guinea Kainantu-branch language of the Eastern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea, spoken by ~6,000 people in the Kainantu District around Henganofi. The Kainantu-Goroka family (Kamano, Yagaria, Gadsup, Auyana, Kanite, Tairora — ~30+ languages, ~200K total speakers) is one of the major Trans-New Guinea subgroups of the Eastern Highlands. Linguistically, Kanite shares classical Eastern Highlands features: SOV constituent order, postpositions, complex verb morphology with subject-tense-aspect agreement, switch-reference clause-chaining, and a small phoneme inventory typical of Kainantu languages. McCarthy's 1965 SIL phonology and Bible translation work since the 1960s have produced literacy materials and the New Testament. Despite the small population, Kanite shows relative vitality in remote highland villages.