This suggests that language can include both indexical speaker reference and personal knowledge marking into their verbal morphology, rather than choosing to focus on one path or the other.

Warfare and raiding were common on the plateau, but there were longstanding trade relations between the Kaluli and certain of the other neighbor groups, particularly with the Sonia to the west and the Huli of the Papuan highlands.

First European contact on the plateau occurred in 1935, bringing with it the introduction of new goods to the regional trade network, most significantly, steel axes and knives.

World War II brought a temporary stop to Australian government exploration of the plateau, which only began in 1953.

At this time, there was more frequent, but still irregular, contacts with Australian administrators and more direct interventions into the lives of the plateau peoples.

Raiding and cannibalism were outlawed by 1960, and in 1964 missionaries built an airstrip near Kaluli territory to serve two mission stations established nearby.

[5]Based on the properties of the present consonant and vowel inventories, Kaluli is a typologically typical language.

When a nasalised vowel precedes a [b d g], most speakers pre-nasalise the stop in continuous speech, e.g. /tapo/ ‘all’ is pronounced as [ˡtʰ ɑ̃^mbo], /atep/ ‘two’ as [ãⁿ depʼ] and /wakapi/ ‘angry’ as [wãⁿˡ gabi].