| Tolai | |
|---|---|
| Kuanua | |
| Tinata Tuna | |
| Native to | Papua New Guinea |
| Region | Gazelle Peninsula,East New Britain Province |
| Ethnicity | Tolai |
Native speakers | (61,000 cited 1991)[1] 20,000L2 speakers |
Austronesian
| |
| Latin script (Tolai alphabet) Tolai Braille | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | ksd |
| Glottolog | kuan1248 |
TheTolai language, orKuanua, is spoken by theTolai people ofPapua New Guinea, who live on theGazelle Peninsula inEast New Britain Province.
This language is often referred to in the literature asTolai. However, Tolai is actually the name of the cultural group. The Tolais themselves refer to their language asa tinata tuna, which translates as 'the real language'.Kuanua is apparently[clarification needed] a word inRamoaaina meaning 'the place over there'.
Tolai belongs to theOceanic branch of theAustronesianlanguage family. The most immediate subgroup is thePatpatar–Tolai group of languages which also includesLungalunga (also spoken on the Gazelle Peninsula) andPatpatar (spoken onNew Ireland).
Unlike many languages in Papua New Guinea, Tolai is a healthy language and not in danger of dying out toTok Pisin, though Tolai has many loanwords from Tok Pisin; e.g. the originalkubar has been completely usurped by the Tok Pisinbraun for 'brown', and the Tok Pisinvilivil for 'bicycle' has replaced the formeraingau. It is considered a prestigious language and is the primary language of communication in the two major centers of East New Britain:Kokopo andRabaul.
Tolai lost the phoneme/s/. For instance, the word for 'sun' in closely related languages of SouthNew Ireland iskesakese, and this has been reduced tokeake in Tolai. However,/s/ has been reintroduced through numerous loanwords from English and Tok Pisin.
Tolai is spoken on the Gazelle Peninsula in the East New Britain Province of Papua New Guinea.
Tolai is said to be one of the majorsubstratum languages ofTok Pisin. Some common Tok Pisin vocabulary items that likely come from Tolai (or a closely related language) include:
Phonology of the Tolai language:[2]
| Labial | Alveolar | Velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k |
| voiced | b | d | ɡ | |
| Fricative | β | s | ||
| Liquid | rhotic | r | ||
| Lateral | l | |||
| Semivowel | (w) | |||
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | u | |
| Mid | e | o | |
| Low | a |
Vowel sounds can also be realised as[ɪ,ɛ,ʌ,ɔ,ʊ]./i/ can be pronounced as[j] in word-initial position.
Tolai pronouns have fournumber distinctions (singular, dual, trial and plural) and threeperson distinctions (first person, second person and third person) as well as aninclusive/exclusive distinction. There are nogender 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) |
| 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) | |
The plural pronouns lose their final-t when used before a verb.
The usual word order of Tolai isagent–verb–object (AVO/SVO).
There is an irregular pattern involving the prefixni-, which changes a verb to a noun. Ordinarily, the prefix is added to the verb, as inlaun 'to live' →anilaun 'the life',ian 'to eat' →anian 'the food',aring 'to pray' →aniaring 'the prayer'. However, in some cases it becomes aninfix⟨in⟩: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'. This infix is inserted after the initial phoneme of the verb. It could also be described as the prefixni- being added as a prefix, and the initial phoneme of the verb changing places with then of the prefix.
