| Tolai | |
| Also Known As: | Kuanua |
| Nativename: | Tinata Tuna |
| States: | Papua New Guinea |
| Region: | Gazelle Peninsula, East New Britain Province |
| Ethnicity: | Tolai |
| Speakers: | 61,000 |
| Date: | 1991 |
| Ref: | e18 |
| Speakers2: | 20,000 L2 speakers |
| Familycolor: | Austronesian |
| Fam2: | Malayo-Polynesian |
| Fam3: | Oceanic |
| Fam4: | Western |
| Fam5: | Meso-Melanesian |
| Fam6: | (St George linkage) |
| Fam7: | Patpatar–Tolai |
| Iso3: | ksd |
| Glotto: | kuan1248 |
| Glottorefname: | Kuanua |
| Script: | Latin script (Tolai alphabet) Tolai Braille |
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.
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'.
Unlike many languages in Papua New Guinea, Tolai is a healthy language and not in danger of dying out to Tok Pisin, although even Tolai suffers from a surfeit of loanwords from Tok Pisin; e.g. the original has been completely usurped by the Tok Pisin for 'brown', and the Tok Pisin 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 pronounced as //s//. For instance, the word for 'sun' in closely related languages of South New Ireland is Uncoded languages: kesakese, and this has been reduced to in Tolai. However, pronounced as //s// has been reintroduced through numerous loanwords from English and Tok Pisin.
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 (also spoken on the Gazelle Peninsula) and Patpatar (spoken on New Ireland).
Tolai is spoken on the Gazelle Peninsula in the East New Britain Province of Papua New Guinea.
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 (or a closely related language) include:
Tok Pisin: aibika (from) - Hibiscus manihot
Tok Pisin: buai - 'betelnut'
Tok Pisin: diwai (from dawai) - 'tree, wood'
Tok Pisin: guria - 'earthquake'
Tok Pisin: kawawar (from) - 'ginger'
Tok Pisin: kiau - 'egg'
Tok Pisin: lapun - 'elderly person'
Tok Pisin: liklik (from) - 'small'
Tok Pisin: umben (from) - 'fishing net'
Phonology of the Tolai language:[1]
| Nasal | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiceless | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |
| voiced | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||
| Fricative | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||
| Liquid | rhotic | pronounced as /ink/ | |||
| Lateral | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||
| Semivowel | (pronounced as /ink/) | ||||
| High | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mid | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||
| Low | pronounced as /ink/ |
Vowel sounds can also be realised as pronounced as /[ɪ, ɛ, ʌ, ɔ, ʊ]./ pronounced as //i// can be pronounced as pronounced as /[j]/ in word-initial position.
Tolai pronouns have four number distinctions (singular, dual, trial and plural) and three person distinctions (first person, second person and third person) as well as an inclusive/exclusive distinction. There are no gender distinctions.
| Singular | Dual | Trial | Plural | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | exclusive | iau (I) | (a)mir (he/she and I) | (a)mital (both of them, and I) | avet (all of them, and I) | |
| inclusive | - | dor (thou and I) | datal (both of you, and I) | dat (all of you, and I) | ||
| 2nd | u (thou) | (a)mur (you two) | (a)mutal (you three) | avat (you guys) | ||
| 3rd | ia (he/she) | dir (they two) | dital (they three) | diat (they) | ||
The plural pronouns lose their final -t when used before a verb.
The usual word order of Tolai is agent–verb–object (AVO/SVO).
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 '''ni'''laun 'the life', ian 'to eat' → a '''ni'''an 'the food', aring 'to pray' → a '''ni'''aring 'the prayer'. However, in some cases it becomes an infix (in): varubu 'to fight' → a v'''in'''arubu 'the fight', tata 'to talk' → a t'''in'''ata 'the language', mamai 'to chew betelnut' → a m'''in'''amai '(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 ni- being added as a prefix, and the initial phoneme of the verb changing places with the n of the prefix.