Climate Change and Tawa

Tawa is the word for water in Kuanua and like everywhere it is a basic human and evironmental need. Tawa becomes scarce during dry seasons affecting all - humans, animals and their habitats.

Recently, that is only about a month ago, the effects of El Nino was so severe for a couple of months in East New Britain and affected almost everyone in the Province. In Kuanua the dry season is called E na Keake or Keake wana. In some dialectsof Kuanua Keake wana is also pronounced keke wana. In literal Kuanua Keake wana means the sun is travelling. Now, back to the dry season in East New Britain. It affected people across the board, both the well-off and the not so well-off. It triggered off complaints in the social media, especially Facebook, about the scarcity of water. There were even posts and pictures of people waiting up to 10.00 pm for their turn to fetch water from the water wells and creeks.

The problem in East New Britain was not so much on the lack of water, but the lack of storage and distribution services provided by the Provincal Government. If anything that we have learnt from the current El Nino, it is tawa storage and distribution services.


This brief commentary is inspired by one of the  World Bank's posts that i receive regularly and in part one of it appears here.

World Bank

Shared publicly  -  03:36

 

The effects of #climatechange often hurt the poor the most.@JimKim_WBG says we can do something about it. 

Kuanua Greeting

Words and phrases used in Kuanua greetings and expressions of gratitude.

Greetings

Good morning. Bona malana. In short you can say malana, the same as just saying morning.
Good day. Bona keake. In short you can say keake.
Good afternoon. Bona ravian. In short you can say ravian.
Good night. Bona marum. In short marum.
Good morning. Bona malana. In short malana.

Hello. Tabaiga or Abara
Tabaiga is used in Kokopo and Toma. Abara is used in the North Coast.
How are you? A nilaun? The response phrase is Iau boinaka. I am good/fine. And to enquire back is Ma u?

Gratitude

Thank you.  Boina. Thank you very much. Boina tuna.

Boina is also used to express quality such as good. The opposite of boina (good) is kaina (bad). 

Rabaul Creole German

One of the good things that happened to me today is i found out that there is a Facebook group that is known as Unserdeutch: The Creole German of Vunapope. Its a great find. Thanks to Ellen Tiamu (The National Weekender May 8, 2015 p.11)

Rabaul Creole German developed in Rabaul as a result of interactions between the Germans then and the local people. An excerpt from my first post titled "Word Migration and Change" reads:

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. 

Now we know Rabaul Creole German also developed about the time Kuanua was being influenced by English and Deutch.

Names of Days and Times of the Day

DAYS of the WEEK &TIMES  of the DAY

Days of the week/Aumana Bung

The names of the seven days of the week are:

Bung tikai        Day one            Monday

Bung kubak

Bung aurua      Day two            Tuesday

Bung autul       Day three          Wednesday

Bung aiwat       Day four           Thursday

Bung ailima     Day five            Friday

Waruruai          Day Six           Saturday

Bung tabu       Day Seven        Sunday

Lotu

Monday (Bung tikai) is also known as bung kubak. Sunday is also known as lotu. The word lotu was introduced by the early Fijian missionaries and has remained to this day in the Kuanua Language and like some Kuanua words it has crossed over to Pidgin.

Times of the Day/ Aumana Pakana bung

Kawunwun    Dawn

Malana           Morning

Keake             Noon

Ravian           Afternoon

Talwiwi         Dusk

Marum          Night

Midnight      Warupia

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..

Kuanua Prefixes and Suffixes

Prefixes and Suffixes

Prefixes

a usually comes before a noun. bar denotes  nuclear and extended family relationship terms. wa is used to signify the noun form of a verb. It is also used to indicate active verb. eg. libur changed to walibur.

Suffixes

Suffixes denoting possessive nouns

gu denotes my;  i, na, denotes of;  m,  am, im denotes your. For example:  Agu tawa. My water. Kaugu mal. My clothes.

In Kuanua there are two categories of possessive nouns: 1. food; 2; non-food. In English the word my is used to refer to both food and non-food items, for example, my house, my orange. It is not so in Kuanua because agu refers to food and kaugu refers to non-food items.

Suffixes as Pronouns

ia . The suffix ia changes a verb to an adverb. e.g., watur ,waturia; ;(touch, touch it) bing, bingia (press, press it). e. In some cases the suffix e can be used instead of ia but not in all cases. e.g., watur, wature. ia and e are at the same time serve as pronouns.

Photo Credit: Grace Tiden

The photo shows the conclusion of the final stage of initiation in Tolai tubuan. This stage is called dok. The prefix ni is added to dok and forms the noun nidok.

Kuanua Prefixes and Suffixes

Prefixes and Suffixes

Some

Prefixes

a usually comes before a noun. bar denotes  nuclear and extended family relationship terms. wa is used to signify the noun form of a verb. It is also used to indicate active verb. eg. libur changed to walibur.

Suffixes

Suffixes denoting possessive nouns

gu denotes my;  i, na, denotes of;  m,  am, im denotes your. For example:  Agu tawa. My water. Kaugu mal. My clothes.

In Kuanua there are two categories of possessive nouns: 1. food; 2; non-food. In English the word my is used to refer to both food and non-food items, for example, my house, my orange. It is not so in Kuanua because agu refers to food and kaugu refers to non-food items.

Suffixes as Pronouns

ia . The suffix ia changes a verb to an adverb. e.g., watur ,waturia; ;(touch, touch it) bing, bingia (press, press it). e. In some cases the suffix e can be used instead of ia but not in all cases. e.g., watur, wature. ia and e are at the same time serve as pronouns.

Photo Credit: Grace Tiden

The photo shows the conclusion of the final stage of initiation in Tolai tubuan. This stage is called dok. The prefix ni is added to dok and forms the noun nidok.