| Also Known As: Blanche Bay,New Britain Language,Gunantuna,Tolai,Tuna,Tinata Tuna
Description:
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..... full article at Wikipedia |
