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.) Gazelle Peninsula seen from space Gazelle Peninsula is a large peninsula in northeastern New Britain, Papua New Guinea, at . ... East New Britain is a province of Papua New Guinea. ... A language family is a group of languages related by descent from a common proto-language. ... The Austronesian languages are a language family widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia. ... The Malayo-Polynesian languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages used by some 351 million speakers. ... The family of Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages is a subgroup of the Central Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages. ... The Oceanic languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages, containing approximately 450 languages. ... The family of Western Oceanic languages is a subgroup of the Oceanic languages. ... The family of Meso Melanesian languages is a subgroup of the Western Oceanic languages. ... ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. ... ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages. ... ISO 639-3 is an international standard for language codes. ... Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... The Unicode Standard, Version 5. ... The Tolai are the indigenous people of the Gazelle Peninsula and the Duke of York Islands of East New Britain in the New Guinea Islands region of Papua New Guinea. ... Gazelle Peninsula seen from space Gazelle Peninsula is a large peninsula in northeastern New Britain, Papua New Guinea, at . ... East New Britain is a province of Papua New Guinea. ...

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. This article includes a list of works cited or a list of external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ... Kokopo is the capital of East New Britain in Papua New Guinea. ... For the volcanic caldera within which Rabaul lies, see Rabaul caldera. ...

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. New Ireland is an island in the Pacific, and the most northeastern province of Papua New Guinea. ...

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). Look up Oceanic in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The Austronesian languages are a language family widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia. ... A language family is a group of languages related by descent from a common proto-language. ... Location of New Ireland Province New Ireland (Tok Pisin: Niu Ailan) is a about 8,650 km² large island in Papua New Guinea. ...

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: This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

aibika (from ibika) - Hisbiscus manihot
buai - betelnut
guria - earthquake
kawawar (from kavavar) - ginger
kiau - egg
lapun - elderly person
umben (from uben) - fishing net
liklik (from ikilik) - small
Binomial name Areca catechu Linnaeus Areca nut, or pinang, more commonly known as betel nut, is the seed of the betel palm or Areca catechu, a species of palm tree which grows throughout the Pacific, Asia, and parts of east Africa. ... An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of stored energy in the Earths crust that creates seismic waves. ... For other uses, see Ginger (disambiguation). ... Fishing with a cast 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. In linguistics, grammatical number is a morphological category characterized by the expression of quantity through inflection or agreement. ... Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to the participant role of a referent, such as the speaker, the addressee, and others. ... Inclusive we is a pronoun or verb conjugation that indicates the inclusion of the speaker, the addressee, and perhaps other people, as opposed to exclusive we, which specifically excludes the addressee. ... In linguistics, grammatical gender is a morphological category associated with the expression of gender through inflection or agreement. ...

Syntax

The usual word order of Kuanua is SVO. In linguistic typology, agent-verb-object (AVO), commonly called subject-verb-object (SVO), is a sentence structure where the agent comes first, the verb second, and the object third. ...

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. Pacific Linguistics is a non-profit publisher located at the Australian National University, Canberra, printing linguistic materials (such as grammars and dictionaries) on the languages of Oceania and Southeast Asia. ...

Lynch, John, Malcolm Ross & Terry Crowley. (2002). The Oceanic languages. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press. This article is about the Governor of New Hampshire. ... Malcolm Ross is a linguist and professor at the Australian National University. ... Terry Crowley (1953-2005) was a linguist specializing in Oceanic languages. ...

External links

• Ethnologue report for Kuanua
• Language Museum page on Kuanua
• Kuanua in the Rosetta Project