The Tolai language, or Kuanua, is spoken by the

Tolai people The Tolai are the indigenous people of the Gazelle Peninsula and the Duke of York Islands of East New Britain in the New Guinea Islands region of Papua New Guinea. They are ethnically close kin to the peoples of adjacent New Ireland and tribes ...

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

, who live on the

Gazelle Peninsula The Gazelle Peninsula is a large peninsula in northeastern East New Britain, Papua New Guinea located on the island of New Britain within the Bismarck Archipelago, situated in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The Rabaul caldera is located on t ...

East New Britain East New Britain is a Provinces of Papua New Guinea, province of Papua New Guinea, consisting of the north-eastern part of the island of New Britain and the Duke of York Islands. The capital of the province is Kokopo, not far from the old capital ...

Province.

Nomenclature

This language is often referred to in the literature as ''Tolai''. However, Tolai is actually the name of the cultural group. The Tolais themselves refer to their language as , which translates as 'the real language'. is apparently a word in Ramoaaina meaning 'the place over there'.

Classification

Tolai belongs to the Oceanic branch of the Austronesian

language family A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family. The term ''family'' is a metaphor borrowed from biology, with the tree model used in historical linguistics ...

. The most immediate subgroup is the Patpatar–Tolai group of languages which also includes Lungalunga (also spoken on the Gazelle Peninsula) and Patpatar (spoken on New Ireland).

Characteristics

Unlike many languages in Papua New Guinea, Tolai is a healthy language and not in danger of dying out to

Tok Pisin Tok Pisin ( ,Laurie Bauer, 2007, ''The Linguistics Student's Handbook'', Edinburgh ; ), often referred to by English speakers as New Guinea Pidgin or simply Pidgin, is an English-based creole languages, English creole language spoken throughou ...

, though Tolai has many loanwords from Tok Pisin; e.g. the original has been completely usurped by the Tok Pisin for 'brown', and the Tok Pisin for 'bicycle' has replaced the former . It is considered a prestigious language and is the primary language of communication in the two major centers of East New Britain:

Kokopo Kokopo is the capital of East New Britain Province in Papua New Guinea. It is administered under Kokopo/Vunamami Urban LLG. The capital was moved from Rabaul in 1994 when the volcanoes Tavurvur and Vulcan erupted. As a result, the population o ...

and

Rabaul Rabaul () is a township in the East New Britain province of Papua New Guinea, on the island of New Britain. It lies about to the east of the island of New Guinea. Rabaul was the provincial capital and most important settlement in the province ...

. Tolai lost the phoneme . For instance, the word for 'sun' in closely related languages of South New Ireland is , and this has been reduced to in Tolai. However, has been reintroduced through numerous loanwords from English and Tok Pisin.

Geographic distribution

Tolai is spoken on the Gazelle Peninsula in the East New Britain Province of Papua New Guinea.

Derived languages

Tolai is said to be one of the major

substratum Substrata, plural of substratum, may refer to: *Earth's substrata, the geologic layering of the Earth *''Hypokeimenon'', sometimes translated as ''substratum'', a concept in metaphysics *Substrata (album), a 1997 ambient music album by Biosphere * ...

languages of

. Some common Tok Pisin vocabulary items that likely come from Tolai (or a closely related language) include: : (from ) - Hibiscus manihot : - '

betelnut The areca nut ( or ) or betel nut () is the fruit of the areca palm (''Areca catechu''). The palm is originally native to the Philippines, but was carried widely through the tropics by the Austronesian expansion, Austronesian migrations and ...

' : (from ) - 'tree, wood' : - 'earthquake' : (from ) - 'ginger' : - 'egg' : - 'elderly person' : (from ) - 'small' : (from ) - 'fishing net'

Phonology

Phonology of the Tolai language: Vowel sounds can also be realised as can be pronounced as in word-initial position.

Grammar

Independent pronouns

Tolai pronouns have four

number A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The most basic examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers can ...

distinctions (singular, dual, trial and plural) and three

person A person (: people or persons, depending on context) is a being who has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations suc ...

distinctions (first person, second person and third person) as well as an inclusive/exclusive distinction. There are no gender distinctions. The plural pronouns lose their final ''-t'' when used before a verb. * - 'Let's go!' * - 'We didn't see.' * - 'They have already arrived.'

Syntax

The usual word order of Tolai is agent–verb–object (AVO/SVO).

Morphology

There is an irregular pattern involving the prefix , which changes a verb to a noun. Ordinarily, the prefix is added to the verb, as in 'to live' → 'the life', 'to eat' → 'the food', 'to pray' → 'the prayer'. However, in some cases it becomes an

infix An infix is an affix inserted inside a word stem (an existing word or the core of a family of words). It contrasts with '' adfix,'' a rare term for an affix attached to the outside of a stem, such as a prefix or suffix. When marking text for ...

: 'to fight' → 'the fight', 'to talk' → 'the language', 'to chew betelnut' → '(a small supply of) betelnuts for chewing'. This infix is inserted after the initial phoneme of the verb. It could also be described as the prefix being added as a prefix, and the initial phoneme of the verb changing places with the ''n'' of the prefix.

Notes

References

* *

External links

Tolai Language Course
*A number of collections in Paradisec includ
materials in Tolai
{{Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages Languages of East New Britain Province Subject–verb–object languages St George linkage