Word Migration and Change
Ismael K. Isikel
Introduction
English words migrate to Kuanua Language via Pidgin and Kuanua words migrate to Pidgin. My observation is that as more Kuanua speakers learn English they borrow words directly from English but add changes to the spelling and form to suit the Kuanua Language. Some of these migrant words change in meaning. There have been some changes in spelling and pronunciation since 1935 observed in the literature. I conclude that although English and Pidgin appear to be eroding the Kuanua Language by borrowing English and Pidgin words, it has helped to broaden the world view of the Kuanua speakers.
I am currently working on a Kuanua dictionary with the intent that this work will differ from earlier works in that it will focus on the current era and attempts to cover all main dialects of Kuanua. The dictionary is being compiled from studies of groups of terms such as gardening words, fishing words, relationship words, names of plants and animals and so on. I began working on this in 1999 and notes were kept in a folder. Over time words were added and eventually the list grew into a volume that I thought was worth organizing into a dictionary. Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary is being used as a guide in compiling the dictionary. Works by Lanyon-Orgill (1960) and Lean (1992) were consulted and proved helpful but these were consulted much later in 2008. Word Migration and Change is an offshoot this dictionary compilation work.
Word Migration and Change is used as the title simply because I view language change similar to humans migrating to another place and tend to change by adapting to their new environment which includes cultural adaptation. Obviously human movement and migration is one of the causes of word migration.
During the course of compiling the list of terms and contact with fellow Kuanua and non-Kuanua speakers I realized that there are “borrowed” words that are now in use in my language. What is interesting about this realization is that most speakers are rarely or never aware that they are using words in their conversations that are foreign. Some Kuanua words have found their way into Pidgin. That is the reason I have decided to share my experience in studying my language in this blog. Research methodology for this writing falls into a number of approaches. The first is compilation of groups of Kuanua words and organizing the words into a dictionary which involves study of definitions and other related dictionary development tasks. Another approach was to find out earlier works and compare them to today’s usage. I speak both Kuanua and English and able to write fluently in both languages. This helped in studying earlier works. Finally a literature review on language change was conducted in the university library and on the internet.
The discussion begins with background information on the language to give the reader some understanding of the language. Next it provides some highlights on ‘borrowed’ words from English and Pidging and ‘borrowed’ words from Kuanua used in Pidgin. Some of the causes of language change are discussed and these include colonization. The paper concludes that words migrate between various cultural settings and change to suit the cultural environment. Although the migrant words may appear to be eroding the language, they play an important role in broadening the world view of the Tolai.
Background
Kuanua language is spoken widely in East New Britain, Papua New Guinea. There are variations to the name Kuanua in everyday usage and in the literature. Lanyon-Orgil (1960) and Lean (1992) noted that the kuanua language is also known as tinata tuna, tolai, and gunantuna. Rinderknecht (1987) used the term melanesischen tuna (tolai) which is also part of the title of his work: Nomen und verb in melansischen tuna (tolai). The entire text is in German language and knowing a word or two in German was of no help in trying to read and understand the book. However, with the help of a German-English Dictionary I concluded that melanesischen tuna (tolai) is one of those variations.There are other works that are metioned by Lanyon-Orgil and Lean include early missionaries Rickard, George Brown, and Danks. I have Yet to consult works by these missionaries. These names are not foreign to me. I grew up hearing these names from my grandparents and other relatives in their historical discussions of missionary work and missionaries.
The reason for the variations is not clear but a strong possibility is that Kuanua, like all other Papua New Guinea languages, comes from pre-modern era, the oral society. It was not a written language. In literal translation tinata tuna would be translated as word real or language real. In English structure these are written as real word or real language. It may also be interpreted as human language. Gunantuna means human being. The word tolai is a common expression used instead of the name of a male person. Today the language is still refered to variantly as tolai, tinata tuna, and kuanua. Kuanua is used more frequently and i have taken the liberty to use Kuanua here. This is also consistent with other works done by missionaries and church workers of the Methodist Church, now United Church.The Bible and hymn in the language are titled Kuanua Hymn Book and Kuanua Bible (Buk Tabu). Another reason for my use of the term kuanua is that much of the literature of the language are refered to as Kuanua. One of the early newsletters of the Methodist Church was titled Nilai Ra Dovot. I remember reading this in my early years of primary school. It was written in Kuanua and distributed to the congregations. Before I completed high school the newsletter no longer circulated.
In normal conversations among Kuanua speakers today tinata tuna and kuanua are used to refer to the language whereas tolai is used to refer to a person of tolai origin from Rabaul, Kokopo, or Toma. If you ask a Tolai outside of East New Britain where he or she comes from, the answere would most likely be Tolai or Rabaul. Rarely or never would one get the answer Kuanua, except in response to a query as to what language does one speak. Although there is a general acception that the name of the language is Kuanua, there are people including non-Tolai, who refer to both the language and speaker as Tolai.
There are variations to the pronunciation (dialects) of Kuanua and these variations may be used to identify which area of ENB the speaker comes from. A Tolai is able to differentiate between a gunantuna from Boawa village and a gunantuna from Kabakada village by the way they speak Kuanua. Regardless of dialect the letter A is pronounced in two different ways. The first sounds the same as the letters er in the pronoun her. Secondly, it is sounded as a in the word art. Both letter As in Rabaul are pronounced by the old folks and even the young generation as er. Now try to pronounce Rabaul substituting the As with er. Rerberul.
Originally the Kuanua language did not have a set of letters used in writing because it was one of those late oral languages. The introduction of writing has helped to identify the letters employed in the oral Kuanua to establish the alphabet. In oral Kuanua the alphabet varies in some dialects. For example, Boawa village (Lungalunga) has the h and s in its dialect whereas Kabakada does not employ h and s. One of the foreign words that quickly dropped s ealier on was the word store. It was tito but with the improvement of literacy it has changed back closure to the English store as sto. 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 easy to pronounce Kuanua words because the language is mostly phonetic. A is used frequently as a prefix before nouns.
Language Change
Language influence one another wherever people of different ethnic or racial groups interact over a period of time. East New Britain experienced the intrusion of WW1, WW2, colonial administrations by the Germans and British, and the conversion from traditional worship to Christianity by the early missionaries. All these influenced the changes in the lives of the Tolai and their language.This is not to say that Kuanua never experienced any changes before the wars, colonial era,and contact with early missionaries. The Tolai were trading with other ethnic groups for shells to make shell money (tabu). The Nakanai were trading partners of the Tolai. Shells for making money were hard to find in the Tolai area but were plentiful in the Nakanai area. That is why the Tolai traded with the Nakanai. They travelled by sea on canoes. The last person that I know who led a trading expedition to Nakanai was ToBelut from Rakunai village. This was between 1967 and 1972.
Kuanua was influenced by English and Germen from the colonial era and in part contributed to the rise of pidgin. Some Kuanua words have found their way into pidgin. Similarly, there are now words commonly used in Kuanua that were originaly not Kuanua. Examples include the word wok from the English word work that has almost replaced the Kuanua word bala which may be employed to mean engaged in, do or doing. Now we hear parents say, "U wok ra nilibur ma wakir u marawut tubum." You spent too much time playing and did not help your granny. Lotu from Fiji is another example now in common use in Kuanua and Pidgin that is used to mean Sabath, worship, and Sundy. Lotu migrated to Kuanua during the beginning of the early missionaries.
Pidgin and English Words in Kuanua
Words in English and Pidgin are now used in everyday communication in villages and towns wherever there are Kuanua speakers. Generally the urban dwellers who speak Kuanua use more English and Pidgin words in their communication than the rural dwellers. Borrowed words that are frequently used include the following listed below together with Pidgin and Kuanua versions. The Kunua translations are given aswell.
English words Pidgin Kuanua pidgin Kuanua
reverse rivas, go bek rivas wana tamurmur reversing wok long rivas/go bek rivarivas tamtamurmur
work wok wok bala, pait, papalum
dance dens, danis dens malagene
meeting kivung, kibung, miting kivung kivung,
trouble trabal torowel, tarabal, trabal purpuruan
time taem taem e, paka na bung
tin, can tin pala tin pala minainga
blue blu bulu koto
book buk buk buk
bighead bikhet biket warekrek
humbug hambag, hambak abak oror
The reason why I have a column labled Kuanua pidgin is that these words appear in Kuanua Communication, not in Pidgin.
Note how some of the forms of words change in Kuanua once they enter the language. For example, the word reversing is translated to Kuanua pidgin as rivarivas. The first three letters of the word rivas is repeated to get a present continuous form which in English is reversing. This is the rule (not written) in Kuanua that if you want to change the form of a verb to present continuous, you repeat the first three letters.
Bump is another English word that has moved across to Kuanua and used mostly to describe motor vehicle collisons. Still at times it is used to describe humans accidently colliding. Bump changes to bam in Kuanua pidgin. The word for bump in Kuanua is tume and its noun form is wartumai.
English and Pidgin words are used for two reasons: 1. convenience:, 2. lack of prior traditional concept. It is economical (convenient) to use and English or Pidgin word that is short and quick to pronounce than a long Kuanua word. There weren't any motor vehicles in the era of oral tradtion. it is an introduced concept with its technology of motor vehicles. Most of the motor vehicle voabulary are borrowed and used in Kuanua. This is the same for other imported technology such as radio and information technology. Imported technology and modern music are two very influential mediums of language change. The lyrics in Tolai modern music can be analysed to reveal that many are a mixture of Kuanua, Pidgin, and English. The music is sold in many shops including the internet and played over TV and radio stations and one can imagine the influence on a large audience.
Origins
Some English words that have strongly establish themselves in Kuanua inlude wok, abak, and biket. These words migrated via Pidgin that initialy borrowed them from the English work, humbug, and bighead. From listening to Kuanua conversations I estimate that wok, abak, and biket are used more than 60% of the time than their Kuanua counterparts bala, oror, and warekrek. Apart from the change in spelling, the words have changed their forms as well but the meanings are the same as in English and Pidgin. Wokwok is now the present continuous of wok. Ababak is the present continuous of abak. Similarly, bikebet is the present continouos of biket. The letter e in biket is a long vowel. Wok has another meaning that is used to refer to a non-Tolai. It migrated to Kuanua during the colonial period from the word worker or laborer. The meaning originated from the perception of the plantation worker by Kuanua speakers from 1884 onwards. It was at this time the German settlers arrived in eastern New Guinea and began their copra plantations. They needed labor for these plantations and recruited men from other parts of the country. The Tolai dropped waira for a time and used wok, perhaps because it was a new short word. Tepelin (zeppelin) and mak (Deutch Mark) also came in about the time wok arrived but they have faded from use due mainly to the change in colonial rulers at the time. The airport was also called tawula tepelin and eventually changed to tawula balus. Now epot (airport) is frequently used. Mak was used in trading activities and began to fade from use when the British currency was introduced. The Australian dollar and cent replaced the Britsh pound and schilling. Like Deutch Mark these two currency names have faded from use except in historical discussions. In 1975 the kina and toea replaced the dollar and cent. The Tolai currency of tabu and tip is still in use.
Dens (dance) is another of the borrowed words that has strongly establish itself in Kuanua. It might have migrated directly from English. The Kuanua word for dance is malagene. Dance is shorter than malagene to pronounce and used by both the well educated, less educated, and the illiterates. Dance came to Kuanua along with the modern social event of party and dance which were called then as kap ti. Cup tea. Apart from it being a social event I remember many kap ti events were held to raise funds when I was in primary school.
In the early 70s I first heard the word torowel but only had vague inklings of its meaning. It usualy surfaced in association with conflict and conflict resolutions. Eventually I learnt that torowel was 'pidginsised' from English trouble. Overtime it changed a little back to English trouble and was pronounced tarabal and now the educated pronounced that as trabal, moving back closer to its origin of English trouble.The Kuanua word for trouble is purpuruan.
Time has also been 'Kuanized' to taem and tem from the Pidgin taem. The Kuanua word for time is e and paka na bung. E is also used to mean season. That is likely the reason it is less prefered to mean time. Paka na bung (part of day) is used to mean time but it is long which is perhaps the reason the English time is convenient.
The word kuk adapted by Pidgin and Kuanua from the English cook is another that has almost replaced tun and tutun or pait nian. The word tun means roast over the open fire. Cook is associated with the introduction of the metal pot or sauce pan. The Kunua word for pot is kabala. Even if pot is short to pronounce Kuanua still retains its kabala while Pidgin employs both pot and sospan.
Tin migrated to Kuanua with the introduction of tinned food, especially tinned fish and other canned meats. The English meaning of tin in this case is a container. A can. Empty tin is called pala tin. However, in Kuanua tin in many instances is used to mean meat. To illustrate the use of tin in Kuanua, the following example is given. Awe ian ra rais ma tin. In English that would be: We ate rice and tin.Tin is used for economy however, in the English literal sense I would be horrified to see anyone eating rice and tin.The Tolai have learnt to correct that and the proper way is Awe ian ra rais ma tin na en. Tin na en is tinned fish. Tin was used to mean meat.
Kuanua words in Pidgin
Kivung, bung, ba, waira, mek, mao, and igir are some of the Kuanua words that have migrated over to Pidgin and are used frequently. Examples: 1. Where will you go? Bai yu go we? Ba una wana uwe? 2. He/She will eat later. Em bai kakai bihain. Ba na ian namur. Waira means foreigner. Example: Em waira man. He is a foreign man. Nam a waira na tutana. Mek is used to describe something that is watery. In Pidgin it is normally mekmek. Example: A mek na buai. Buai em mekmek. The betel nut is watery. Mao is used to mean ripe, particularly in reference to fruits. A ripe banana is often refered to as mao. Wudu is the word for banana. Another meaning for mao is cooked. Igir is employed both as noun and verb. In general all green leaf vegetables are labled igir. It is also a synonym for aibika. One type of Tolai cooking is called igir where food is cooked in hot stones. The cooked food is called igir as well. It is also pronounced aigir both in Kuanua and Pidgin.
Kiakiau is a species of banana common in Rabaul. Kiakiau has now comfortably migrated over to Pidgin as kiaukiau and in the process it has acquired a second letter u in its spelling. The Kuanua version has only one letter u and that is the last letter in the spelling. Kiakiau is not only used at Kokopo market but in other markets around the country.
Another species of banana commonly grown in Rabaul is kalapua. Kalapua is another that has migrated to Pidgin. In Kuanua the meaning is specific but in Pidgin it is generic. In Pidgin two species of bananas are referred to as kalapua where in Rabaul they are distinguished from one another by name, taste, and ceremonial use. The other species of banana is okabia known in other parts of East New Britain as tukuru and palauba. In Tolai culture okabia has ceremonial value than kalapua. Evidence of this can be observed during during mortuary and wedding feasts where exchange and distribution of food is involved. Very rarely is kalapua used in these traditional exchanges because it is not culturally proper nor acceptable. Kalapua does not taste the same as okabia.
From time to time Kuanua expressions appear in Pidgin but fade after a year or two. One of these that has been around for over a year is a mixture of English and Kuanua phrase that is used to mean goodbye or see you later. The phrase is "Catch Mulai". It is used widely by both Tolai and others. There are of course other similar phrases that caught on after catch mulai from other parts of the country.
Spelling changes
Some words have changed spelling. In Lanyon-Orgil's study of the Raluana Kuanua in the 1960s the letter q is used to indicate the sound and letter g. Examples are aqar, aqaqar, aqu, aqure, and agut. I come from a different area and in my dialect the sound g is used to pronounce the words given in the examples. Aqar is spelt agar and aqaqar is spelt agagar. The title A Buk na tinir ta ra lotu, a but na kakailai, ma tara umanamqit bula ure ra lotu is one of the early Kuanua hymn books published in 1902 has the word maqit as part of the title. Maqit may mean thing or things. The publication is in the Blanch Bay dialect. Today in my dialect (Rakunai) the word is spelt and pronounced with a g, not q, thus magit. Even now the people of Kokopo including Raluana spell and prounce the word the same as the Rakunai dialect - magit.
The migrant words appear to be eroding the language however, they contribute to improving the world view of the Tolai. Some of ther migrant words do not remain for long while others have remained for over 40 years. Wok from Work is one such word. Word migration is caused by various factors including past colonialism, trade, and missionary work. Pidgin serves as transit point for words migrating over to Kuanua. As more and moreTolai are literate in English there may be little need for Pidgin as a transit point. Most words retain their meanings while some change as in the word kalapua used in Pidgin.
Further Readings
1. Lanyon-Orgil, Peter A. 1960. A dictionary of Raluana language (New Britain SW Pacific). Victoria, B C. The Author.
2. http://en.wikipedia/ org/wiki/Language_change (30/05/2010)
3. http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/change.jsp (30/05/2010)
4. Lean. Glendon A. 1992. Counting systems of Papua New Guinea and Oceania. Papua New Guinea University of Technology. Papua New Guinea.
5. Lean, Glendon A. 1983. An Introduction to Tolai with English-Tolai Tolai - English vocabularies. Papua New Guinea University of Technology. Papua New Guinea.
6. Rinderkhect, Peter. 1987. Nomen und verb in melaneisschen tuna (tolai). Peter Lang, Bern.
7. Department of Education.1955. Tinata Tuna: The Language of the Blanch Bay Area. Department of Education. Port Moresby
8. http://anthro.palomar/. edu/language 5 html ( 30/05/2010)
9. http://nla.gov.au/nla. cs-ma-an5394455(24/06/2010)
.
