Vuna and Ra

This post is on the terms Vuna and Ra.

Edited 6/072017 Ismael Isikel

Vuna and Ra commonly appear at the beginning of place names to form the names of villages found in the Tolai areas of East New Britain. Vuna has two meanings: 1. reason; 2. cluster, group. Ra is the definite article the in Kuanua.

Examples of Usage

Ava ra vuna? What is the reason?
A vuna barnavudu. A cluster of bananas.
A vuna tarai. A clan. A group of people (a clan) from one of the two tribes (Pikalama and Marmar) in Tolai culture.

Examples of place names beginning with Vuna and Ra.

Rakunai (the grass) is the name of several villages in East New Britain. The most popular of them is Rakunai village where a Catholic Church and school are located. It shares borders with Raluan (the bulge) and Rakunai United Church.

Other place names beginning with Ra and their meanings include:

Rakandakanda - the cluster of canes
Rakotop - the crossing
Ramale - the valley
Ratongor - the mangrove

Place names beginning with Vuna and their meanings include:

Vunamami - Group of coconuts. Mami is the word that describes a species of coconut. The green husk is sweet and is chewed, similar to sugarcane. Vunamami is a village in Kokopo District.

Vunairoto - Group of iroto trees. Iroto is a species of wood. Vunairoto village is predominantly United Church and shares borders with Kabakada, Nabata, and Vunalir villages along the North Coast.

Vunagamata - Group of laulau trees. Laulau tree bears edible fruits when in season. Vunagamata village is located between Ratongor and Vunavulila villages along the North Coast road.

This post is based on one dialect of Kuanua and that is Kabakada. There are other terms depending on dialect as recently pointed out by Esekia Warvi. After reading my shared post on Facebook (13/6/2017) Mr Warvi commented, "Of similar meaning in Kokopo dialect it's "Bita" as in Bitatita, Bitavavar, Bitamarita, Bitapetep, etc...". My response, "Raluana/Kokopo dialect is bita. It means base or base of. That is one meaning I know. There may be another meaning. My vocab on Raluana/Kokopo dialect is less than comprehensive." There is a term in my Kuanua dialect that means "origin. It is also used to mean "base of" as in "bita"in Raluana/Kokopo dialect. The term is vunapaina. A synonym of vunapaina is turpaina and pronounced in other dialects as turupaina.