Counting

In Kuanua the word reading is used in two different ways. Firstly, it is used to mean count  (counting items) and secondly, it is used to mean read, as in reading a book or article. The word  for counting is niluluk and for count is luk. Here the main numbers and general counting method is written  for you to count in Kuanua.The letter a is usually added at the begining of most nouns. The number 1 is tikai but is one of those numbers you do not need to add the letter a in the beginning to change tikai into atikai. No, never! 1 is tikai, but 2 is urua to aurua and 3 is utul to autul and so forth. Counting 1 to 10 is tikai (1), aurua (2), autul (3), iwat/aiwat (4), ilima/ ailima (5), laptikai/alapitaka(6), lavurua/aluvurua (7), lavutul/alavutul (8), lavuvat/alavuvat (9), winun/awinun (10). A counting guide is presented below for counting and using higher numerals.

 Counting in Kuanua

10 - 1000

10  winun

20 ura winun

30 utula winun

40  iwat na winun

50 ilima na winun

60 laptikai na winun

70 lavurua na winun

80 lavutul na winun

90 lavuvat na winun

100 mar
200 ura mar
300 utula mar
400 iwat na mar
500 ilima na mar
600 laptikai na mar
700 lavurua na mar
800 lavutul na mar
900 lavuvat na mar

1000 - arip

1 - 10

1 tikai

2 urua

3 utul

4 iwat

5 ilima

6 laptikai

7 lavurua

8 lavutul

9 lavuwat

10 winun

11 - 1000+

11 winun ma tikai

21 ura winun ma tikai

31 utula winun ma tikai

41 iwat na winun ma tikai

51 ilima na winun ma tikai

61 laptikai na winun ma tikai

71 lavurua na winun ma tikai

81 lavutul na winun ma tikai

91 lavuvat na winun ma tikai

101 mar ma tikai

1001 arip ma tikai
2001 aura arip ma tikai
3001 autula arip ma tikai

Possesive Nouns in Kuanua

Edited 12/9/2017 Ismael K. Isikel

Unlike the English possessive nouns, Kuanua has two sets of possessive nouns. One set is used for food items and another set is used for non-food items. In this post plural possessive nouns are indicated with plr and singular are indicated with s. var is used to indicate variation in word which is influenced by dialect. In everyday conversations plural possessive nouns are indicated clearly from two to three persons and more than three persons are referred to as plural in general. Note also that the letter a in the beginning of each word indicates possessive noun of food item. The letter k in the beginning of each word indicates possessive noun of non-food item. Below is a list of possessive nouns of Food Items and Non-Food Items with examples. 

Food Items

adat plr For us. More than three persons
Tubugu ipare ra pa adat. My granny roasted taro for us.

adatal plr For us. For the three of us.
Nam ra en adatal, That fish is ours/for the three of us.

adital plr For the three of them.
Nam ra en adital. That fish is theirs/for the three of them

adir plr For them. For the two of them. var aduru
Iau warwe u ba adir nam ra tup. I told you the sugarcane is theirs/for the two of them.

ador plr For us. For the two of us.
Ador kulau. Ador is used when the owners (two persons) of an item are speaking amongst themselves. 

adiat plr For them. More than three persons

Nam ra en adiat. That fish is theirs.

agu  s Mine

Nam ra en agu. That fish is mine.

am s Yours  var. amu
Nam ra en am. That fish is yours.

amamir  plr For the two of us.
Amamir igir. Amamir is used when speaking to others about an item belonging to self and another.

amamur plr For the two of you
Amamur igir

amamital plr For the three of us
Amamital nian.

amamutal plr For the three of you. var. mutalu
Amamutal ku.

amavet plr  For us. var avevet  More than three persons
Amavet kakika. Only for us.

Non-food Items

kaugu s Mine; For me.
Kaugu robong.

kaum s For you. var. karum, karumu, karimu
Kaum robong.

kamamir plr For the two of us. Used when speaking to others about our possession. 
Kamamir uma.

kamamur plr For you. For the two of you.var. karimui
Kamamur tiniba.

kamavet  plr    For us. More than three persons. var.kawavet, kavevet
Kamavet nam ra pal. That house is ours'

kamamital plr For us. For the three of us.
Kamamital kakika. For the three of us only,

kamamutal plr For you. For the three of you. var. karimui
Nam ra boroi kamamutal. That pig is for the three of you.

kamavat plr For you.
Nam ra papkana pia kamavat. That piece of land is yours.

kana s His,hers/its. var. kaina, karina
Kana uma iwawailik. His/Her garden is far away.

kadir plr Theirs. For the two of them.var. karidi
Kadir uma. Their garden.

kador plr  For the two of us.  Used when speaking to ourselves about our possession.
Kador pal. Our house.

kadiat plr For them. More than three people. Used when speaking of other people's possession
Kadiat nam rapal. That house is theirs.

kadatal plr For the three of us. Used when speaking of our possession
Kadatal nam ra pal. That house is ours.

kadital plr For the three of them. Used when speaking of other people's possession

Kadital nam ra kakailai. That song is theirs.

Kapeo

kapeo   Solo; one. tikai. var.kapono

kapmon       Show off; showy.

kapbala         Pregnant

kapnat         Breast-feeding mammal carrying its young, e.g., A flyng fox.

kapkap        1. A work team. 2. Carrying pres cont of kap
kapakapana Patana iki; a gunan i lingling;

kapu Sea cucumber

kapual Stirred up dust or water

karakum      Red tree ant

karakaraik   A small species of red ant.

kari   Move

karua   Mallet head fish

kau   A species of bird light brownish in colour and light grey in the chest.

kau   Dawn. var. kavunvun. Kau relates to the bird

Kaugu My, Mine. Var. kalugu, karugu (Boawa, Nodup)

kaul Race: to race.

Kaum   Your, Yours. E.g. Wakir kaum. Not yours Var. kalum. Karum. (Boawa, Nodup)

kaur Bamboo; Kaur lubalubang and kaur wat are two species of bamboo.

kawip   An object with a drilled hole such as galip nut that is used as whistle.

kelelek         A grub that develops into a beatle.

kere 1. Hat. 2. Coconut shell after it has just been grated off the meat.

ki      1. Sit. eg. Una  ki. You sit down. 2. Enough. e.g. Itar ki. It is enough.

Kuanua Alphabet

Alphabet

Originally the Kuanua language did not have a set of letters used in writing because it was an oral language. The introduction of writing has helped to identify the letters employed in the oral kuanua to establish an alphabet. The alphabet varies in certain dialects. For example, Boawa Village (LungaLunga) has the h and s in its dialect whereas Kabakada, only about three kilometers away, does not employ h and s. Boawa people speak the Masawa dialect of Kuanua. Generally, the kuanua alphabet is a, b, d, e, g, h, i, k, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, u, v, w. It is not hard to pronounce Kuanua words because the language is mostly phonetic…. The -A also is used frequently as a prefix before all nouns. The sound ng is pronounced as in the suffix ing , in English, added to a term to indicate present continuous tense.  Examples are: mangoro – many; mangula – busy; and mang – bandicoot. The letter I is pronounced as in the English letter E. The letter E is pronounced e as in get, bed, and leg.

Photo credit: Esau Mellie.
Harbour of Rabaul taken from the side of Kokopo..The Raluana dialect of Kuanua is spoken in Kokopo..