Stone

Ismael K.Isikel EDited 3/10/2017

Wat or watu is the word for stone in Kuanua. You find in almost every yard a ground oven (ubu) with stones. This is used for cooking and the two most common types of cooking using heated stones are pinapara and nigir.  Apart from pinapara and nigir, it was used as a tool and weapon in the past. Well, that was the past but if one observe riots today, stones are used as weapon in some riots. Pinapara or mumu in pidgin  is cooking food in a ground oven. Nigir is cooking using hot stones in a container such as a large saucepan which is a modern option to banana leaves. Banana leaves are also used as container for nigir. The banana leaves are prepared and arranged into a container. Kadui is the name of the container.


Watki  is one of the related words and means  ancient rock.  It is made up of two words: wat and ki.  Ki is the word for sit or sit down. A rock may have been in one spot and nobody knows how it got to where it is or when. That is why it is called a watki.  It is also used to describe something or person that is revered. Watmarut is closely related to watki and it is the word for sacred rock.  Again that is adding marut to wat to form watmarut. Marut means an old item or object.  A Tolai belief is that, watmarut should not be touched. If touched, it will cause the hands to develop a shaking disease similar to Parkinson's. There is no scientific evidence of that however that is Tolai belief.

There are also related words in Kuanua  with close meanings to

Watwat  describes a rocky area; an area that is full of rocks. It is also commonly used to describe surface or something that is hard as rock. Even a hard boil on the body is sometimes described as watwat.

The word for smooth stone or pebble is palao. Another word that means round and smooth is wulu (the last letter u is a long vowel) that describes a stone or other object that is smooth and round in shape. Palao is the preferred stone for ground ovens.

Koro is a small stone or stones varying from fist-size down to gravel-size. Koro is used especially to describe the small stones in a ground oven.

Wuru is the word for pumice which is a porous and abrasive stone. It forms as a result of hot lava coming into contact with water. A lot of it may be seen from time to time floating on the water of Simpson Harbour. Soon after the 19th September 1994 twin volcanic eruption of Tavurvur and Tavana the sea was littered with floating wuru stretching as far as the eye could see. Wuru is used for scrubbing purposes, including scrubbing utensils.

One type of stone that has been part of the traditional Tolai economy is coral stone. It was and still is used for making lime (kabang) that is sold in markets and villages. Coral is called raga in Kuanua. A phrase describing harvesting of coral is pinipit na raga.

Another type of stone is papapa. It is actually silt.  Papapa may be found in and around water wells.


Sample Usage


Tatak na wat.                  Collect stones
Autula wat.                     Three stones
Aumana wat.                   Rocks (plural)
Wat.                                  Rock (singular)
Pipit na raga.                   Harvest coral.
Wartupar mara wat.       Shoot with stones
A wat na ubu.                   A stone for the ground oven. (singular)
Aumana wat na ubu.       Ground oven stones/Stones for the ground oven. (plural)


Source: 1. Written from oral source. Ismael K. Isikel 3/10/2017
              2. https://byjus.com/biology/types-of-soil/(3/10/2017)