Tolai language

The Tolai language, or Kuanua, is spoken by the Tolai people of Papua New Guinea, who live on the Gazelle Peninsula in East New Britain 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 a tinata tuna, which translates as 'the real language'. Kuanua is apparently a word in Ramoaaina meaning 'the place over there'.

Classification

Tolai belongs to the Oceanic branch of the Austronesian language family. The most immediate subgroup is the Patpatar–Tolai group of languages which also includes Lungalunga and Patpatar.

Characteristics

Unlike many languages in Papua New Guinea, Tolai is a healthy language and not in danger of dying out to Tok Pisin, though Tolai has many loanwords from Tok Pisin; e.g. the original kubar has been completely usurped by the Tok Pisin braun for 'brown', and the Tok Pisin vilivil for 'bicycle' has replaced the former aingau. It is considered a prestigious language and is the primary language of communication in the two major centers of East New Britain: Kokopo and Rabaul.
Tolai lost the phoneme. For instance, the word for 'sun' in closely related languages of South New Ireland is kesakese, 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 languages of Tok Pisin. Some common Tok Pisin vocabulary items that likely come from Tolai include:

Phonology

Phonology of the Tolai language:

	Front	Central	Back
High
Mid
Low

Vowel sounds can also be realised as can be pronounced as in word-initial position.

Grammar

Independent pronouns

Tolai pronouns have four number distinctions and three person distinctions as well as an inclusive/exclusive distinction. There are no gender distinctions.
The plural pronouns lose their final -t when used before a verb.

Da vana! – 'Let's go!'
Pa ave gire. – 'We didn't see.'
Dia tar pot – 'They have already arrived.'
Syntax

The usual word order of Tolai is agent–verb–object.

Morphology

There is an irregular pattern involving the prefix ni-, which changes a verb to a noun. Ordinarily, the prefix is added to the verb, as in laun 'to live' → a nilaun 'the life', ian 'to eat' → a nian 'the food', aring 'to pray' → a niaring 'the prayer'. However, in some cases it becomes an infix : varubu 'to fight' → a vinarubu 'the fight', tata 'to talk' → a tinata 'the language', mamai 'to chew betelnut' → a minamai ' betelnuts for chewing'. This infix is inserted after the initial phoneme of the verb. It could also be described as the prefix ni- being added as a prefix, and the initial phoneme of the verb changing places with the n of the prefix.