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

Shooting Stars and Folklore

Google image (4/8/2016): Shooting Star

Shooting star. (Tulungen na virua)

About a week ago I observed a fast streaking light that only lasted a few seconds travelling south above the sky. The name for shooting star in my language suddenly appeared in my thoughts. In Kuanua (Kabakada dialect) it is "tulungen na virua" and translated to English as "spirit of the dead". The phrase translated word by word to English: tulungen = spirit; na = of the; virua = dead.

Tolai folklore on shooting star varies slightly or differently from one area to another but what is common is that a shooting star is the spririt of the dead travelling to its resting place. The name may also vary according to dialect.

Soon after my observation of the shooting star i posted on it on Facebook and received two comments, from two Tolai Facebook friends. The first from Gideon Kakabin and the second from Doreen Samm Howes and here are their comments.

1. Also known as a gaugau na tup. If a shooting star appeared after a burial, than that person went unto tingana tabaran, our heaven..

2. Few times I heard my parents named a shooting star that disappeared towards Duke of York Islands,the sea ,as a good and brave spirit.A melem.A shooting star that didn't disappear towards the sea was a Kaloata, would drown in the sea. Was a bit confused about shooting stars.

And for the star gazers,  this is the time of the year when we observe more of these 'tulungen na virua' up in the sky.

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.

A Kapono

kapeo  

The word kapeo means single, one, or solo. Example usage: A bul kapeo. An only child.There is a variation to the word and that is kapono.It means only one. Another meaning of kapono is old person, usually old male. Example usage: Ra kapono. The old man. An old female is tubuan. A tubuan. An old woman.

The word kapeo is used by many as name for both males and females. For the female it is Ia Kapeo and for the male it is To Kapeo.

This fellow standing with his bicycle is To Kapeo. He was named after his great grandfather Ruruaur To Kapeo who was one of the last "blackbirds" at Mackay sugarcane farm, Queensland. 

Midi

Midi is one of the Kuanua words that had almost disappeared from the Kuanua vocabulary and was on the brink of extinction. The closest phrase that has some relationship to midi is nuk midimidi or nuk midamida. Nuk midimidi means feast in remembrance and honor of dead relatives.

Midi itself is a necklace made from a type of sea shell. From historical photographs it strongly appears that it is worn by males. Pur is the term that is still in use as the name for the necklace worn by people during ceremonies, including dances. Pur is made from tagete leaves and other natural fibres, while midi is made entirely from one type of sea shell except for the rope that is used to string the shells together. The general name for necklace is kurkurua.

This cultural piece (midi) is just beginning to be revived through study and research for a master’s thesis by Lisa Hilli. While doing her study she communicated with me and Gidoen Kakabin (New Guinea Island Historical Society) regarding her research and in one of her correspondences she wrote:

In a couple of weeks I will be for the first time publicly presenting some outcomes of my Masters research into Tolai Middi, through an exhibition in Brisbane, QLD. A key aim within my research is to repatriate back knowledge to the Tolai community, within PNG and Australia. This is an image of Pearson Vetuna, Tabunatip Clan, wearing the middi that I have made. Making this middi was a very special and profound experience and connected me to my cultural ancestry. I chose Uncle Pearson as he is a respected elder in the Tolai & PNG community here in Melbourne. I have gained A LOT from using this very special and unique group and thought it was time to give something back. Thank you Gideon for establishing this group - see facebook isn't such a bad thing is it? 

Photo by Lisa Hilli showing Pearson wearing a midi, 2015.

Tolai man wearing a midi c,1883
The photo is from R. Parkinson's records  that was recently shared by Gideon Kakabin in New Guinea Islands Historical Society's timeline on Facebook, 2016)

The time difference between these two photographs is from about 1883 to 2015. Fortunately the word midi was recorded by R, Parkinson in the form of a photo of a Tolai man wearing a midi. Over a hundred years later Lisa Hilli studied this cultural piece of jewelry and recreated the midi which is shown in the first photo.

Ornamental Plants

Some ornamental plants used for body decorations (minong ba marmar) in Rabaul during various traditional activities. Tagete is used frequently to make pendants (midal) and pur. The tigil and lomo are also used for other purposes such as in making ku.

Tagete (iki)

Tagete (iki)

Tigil (iki)

Labira (iki)

Lomo (iki)

Tagete (iki)

Vocabulary from Galip to Gugu

Galip to Gugu

galip 1. A tree that bears edible nuts. 2. galip nuts.
Like the coconut the galip has been a source of food for centuries and now a source of income for villagers who sell the nuts at Kokopo market. The long nut is known as gulum and there is another type whose outer soft skin is purple is called ngarikoko. The nut is also called galip.
Aina galip. A galip tree.

galipuna      Seedling; seedling of. var. midir; midirina
Seedlings from nuts are called galip or midir.
Nam a galipuna ma namo a dawaina. That is the seedling and over there is the tree.

galum   Kiss. galumia - Kiss him/her/it. wargalum; n. galgalum; pres. cont.

galume         Hold in the mouth. galgalume; pres. cont.
Koko u galume ra galip. Do not hold the galip nut in your mouth.

galowo         A plant whose leaves are used for food and general wrapping. There are various species of galowo that are used for food wrapping. A similar plant related to galowo is gaga and the leaves are also used for food wrapping.
Una kumit pa ta ura mapina galowo. Get two galowo leaves

gamata        A fruit tree. var. tagia (Raluana). Gamata is a fruit tree that bears juicy fruits. Like the coconut and galip, gamata is also one of the valuable trees for its fruit and wood. The fruit is commonly found at Kokopo market during season.

gami 1. A species of small black ant. 2. Spit at
A gami itupia tara mao na waiaka. There are plenty of black ants on the ripe waiaka banana.

gamul  1. Blunt; gamuluna; 2. Adult male without any facial hair (beard).
Taumana tutana aumana gamul. Some men do not have facial hair.

gap   blood; var. gapu (Boawa) gapi blood of. var. gapui; gapum Your blood;

gapugu  My blood gapuna His/her/its blood

gawul  1.Cloud. 2. Obscured.
A korong na gawul. Thick black cloud.

ge 1.brush; vb.  to clean. gege brush n. 2. Dry.

Ge ra palangiam. Brush your teeth.

gege crooked; not straight gegene;; bent object. var. potok; potokina

Igege nam ra kaur. That bamboo is crooked.

gegelul         Seesaw; swing. var. gogolil

geo n.   Rope used for tying an animal, especially a pig, so that it does not wander off. Geo is also used as a verb.

gi      vb.Cut into small pieces. ginigi   n.Cuttings
Una gi nam ra kakaruk aikikilik na pakana. You cut the chicken meat into small pieces.

gigi   1. Lemon grass. 2. Cut into small pieces. 3. Clear: clear off twigs and logs from an area prepared for gardening.

gigie Crush; crush between the palms. gigigie; present continuous
Una gigie ra kuburi ra guava.You crush the young guava leaves.

gilaur  Sea weed.

gilu   1. Out of tune. 2. A species of reef fish that inhabits areas where see weeds are found.

ginigira        1. Impression. 2. Vision , dream.

gire   see. giregire      pres. cont. gigira   the act of seeing, viewing.

go     1. Spear; to spear. 2. sharp pointed. 3. this. var. gono, gon

gori today; now. var. ieri (Raluana)

ToBata na pot gori. Mr Bata will arrive today.

gogol   1. Rainbow. 2. Singe; burn

gogor  1. to strip. 2. young palm leaf

gol    vb. sprout. ginol n. ; goagol pres. cont

golom Wood cut, peeled, and dried in preparation to be used in building a house. Also refers to secondary growth comprising mostly of wood.

gomgom   Clean; free from impurity. gomgomuna   Clean one. var. gomgomina. wagomgom vb. warwagomgom n; advb

gu     Merry. gugu happy gugu leke overjoyed.

guan Rock to and fro; shake; guane  To shake; guaguane pres.cont

gugu Happy. Gugu mat. Very happy. Gugu leke. Over joy.