Kuanua language

language
name=Kuanua
nativename=Tinata Tuna
familycolor=Austronesian
states=Papua New Guinea
region=Gazelle Peninsula, East New Britain Province
speakers=~100,000
fam1=Austronesian
fam2=Malayo-Polynesian (MP)
fam3=Eastern MP
fam4=Oceanic
fam5=Western Oceanic
fam6=Meso-Melanesian
fam7=New Ireland
fam8=South New Ireland-Northwest Solomonic
fam9=Patpatar-Tolai
iso1="none"
iso2=map
iso3=ksd

Kuanua is spoken by the Tolai people of Papua New Guinea, who live on the Gazelle Peninsula in East New Britain Province. (This language is often referred to in the literature as "Tolai". However, Tolai is actually the name of the cultural group. The Tolais themselves refer to their language as "A Tinata Tuna", which translates as "The Real Language".)

Unlike many languages in Papua New Guinea, Kuanua is a healthy language and not in danger of dying out to Tok Pisin, although even Kuanua suffers from a surfeit of loanwords from Tok Pisin, e.g. the original "kubar" has been completely usurped by the Tok Pisin "braun" for brown or the Tok Pisin "vilivil" for bicycle has replaced the former "aingau". It is considered a prestigious language and is the primary language of communication in the two major centers of East New Britain: Kokopo and Rabaul.

Kuanua is unique in that it has lost the phoneme 's', though it is still in use in the closely related languages spoken in South New Ireland. There the word for sun is "kesakese". This has been reduced to "keake" in Kuanua. However, with numerous loanwords from English and Tok Pisin having found a permanent home in Kuanua, 's' is gaining acceptance in the language.

Classification

Kuanua belongs to the Oceanic branch of the Austronesian language family. The most immediate subgroup is the Patpatar-Tolai group of languages which also includes Minigir (also spoken on the Gazelle Peninsula) and Patpatar (spoken on New Ireland).

Geographic distribution

Kuanua is spoken on the Gazelle Peninsula in the East New Britain Province of Papua New Guinea.

Derived languages

Kuanua is said to be one of the major substratum languages of Tok Pisin. Some common Tok Pisin vocabulary items that likely come from Kuanua (or a closely related language) include:

"aibika" (from "ibika") - Hisbiscus manihot
"buai" - betelnut
"diwai" (from "dawai") - tree, wood
"guria" - earthquake
"kawawar" (from "kavavar") - ginger
"kiau" - egg
"lapun" - elderly person
"liklik" (from "ikilik") - small
"umben" (from "uben") - fishing net

Grammar

Independent Pronouns

Kuanua pronouns have four number distinctions (singular, dual, trial and plural) and three person distinctions (first person, second person and third person) as well as an inclusive/exclusive distinction. There are no gender distinctions.

The plural pronouns lose their final -t when used before a verb. 'Da vana!' - 'Let's go!', 'Pa ave gire.' - 'We didn't see.', 'Dia tar pot' - 'They have already arrived.'

yntax

The usual word order of Kuanua is SVO.

There is an interesting phenomenon involving the prefix ni-, which changes a verb to a noun. This introduces an element of irregularity into the language. Ordinarily, the prefix is just added to the beginning of the verb, e. g. "laun" to live -> "a nilaun" the life; "ian" to eat -> "a nian" the food; "aring" to pray -> "a niaring" the prayer. However: "varubu" to fight -> "a vinarubu" the fight; "tata" to talk -> "a tinata" the language; "mamai" to chew betelnut -> "a minamai" (a small supply of) betelnuts for chewing. In those instances, the ni- changes to -in- and becomes an infix which is inserted after the initial phoneme of the verb. It could also be said that the ni- is added as a prefix, but then the initial phoneme of the verb changes places with the n of the prefix.

References

Mosel, Ulrike. (1984). "Tolai syntax and its historical development". Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.

Lynch, John, Malcolm Ross & Terry Crowley. (2002). The Oceanic languages. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press.

External links

* [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=ksd Ethnologue report for Kuanua]
* [http://www.language-museum.com/k/kuanua.htm Language Museum page on Kuanua]
* [http://www.rosettaproject.org/archive/austronesian/oceania/ksd/view?searchterm=Kuanua Kuanua in the Rosetta Project]