Kuanua language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Kuanua Tinata Tuna |
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|---|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Papua New Guinea | |
| Region: | Gazelle Peninsula, East New Britain Province | |
| Total speakers: | ~100,000 | |
| Language family: | Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Eastern Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Western Oceanic Meso-Melanesian New Ireland/Northwest Solomonic St George Patpatar-Tolai Kuanua |
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| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | none | |
| ISO 639-2: | map | |
| ISO/FDIS 639-3: | ksd | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key. | ||
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.)
Unlike many languages in Papua New Guinea, Kuanua is a healthy language and not in danger of dying out to Tok Pisin. 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.
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[edit] 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).
[edit] Geographic distribution
Kuanua is spoken on the Gazelle Peninsula in the East New Britain Province of Papua New Guinea.
[edit] 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
guria - earthquake
kawawar (from kavavar) - ginger
kiau - egg
lapun - elderly person
umben (from uben) - fishing net
[edit] Grammar
[edit] Independent Pronouns
Kuanua pronouns have four number distinctions (singular number, dual number, trial number and plural number) and three person distinctions (first person, second person and third person) as well as an inclusive/exclusive distinction. There are no gender distinctions.
| Singular | Dual | Trial | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st exclusive | iau (I) |
(a)mir (he/she and I) |
(a)mital (both of them, and I) |
avet (all of them, and I) |
| 1st inclusive | - | dor (thou and I) |
datal (both of you, and I) |
dat (all of you, and I) |
| 2nd | u (thou) |
(a)mur (you two) |
(a)mutal (you three) |
avat (you guys) |
| 3rd | ia (he/she) |
dir (they two) |
dital (they three) |
diat (they) |
[edit] Syntax
The usual word order of Kuanua is SVO.
[edit] 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.
