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Cooking Styles

 Ancient to Present Cooking Styles in East New Britain: A Synopsis of Styles & Related Vocabulary in Kuanua. By Ismael K. Isikel  Nian is food. Pait nian is cooking or making food. Tutun is roast over the fire. Tunia is roast it over the fire. Tunutun is the art of roasting over a fire. Kukulubai is cover with leaves and cook over a fire . Kulube is roast it over a fire. Igir (aigir) is cooking using heated stones. Parapara is cooking using an ubu of ground oven. Pare is cook it in an ubu. Pipitai is making ku, which is heated coconut 'milk'. Pipite is squeeze scraped coconut. Kokolomoi is the practice of eating raw food. Kolome is eat it raw. And take care when cooking because humans do not prefer imur, overcooked, food. Polo is soup. Polapolo is watery. Your evaluation of food taste may be kalami such as sweet, juicy, or delicious. Gogol is used to describe half cooked banana or tuber. Maur is satisfied and minaur is satisfaction. Mao is cooked. Also used to describe r...
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Chicken 'operation'

 Traditional Life Observation. Cutting a chicken was/is a traditional method of finding out the cause of illness in the body of a sick person. The chicken is caught, plucked, and cut open while it is still alive. It is not killed before cutting. It is cut open and examined for any signs that indicate sickness. For example, a sore inside the body. If a sore is found, it tells that the sick human has a sore in his/her body. Traditional remedy is prescribed or prepared and given to the sick human as treatment. I don't know, but I think traditional magic is involved. This year, 2025, is the second or third time in my entire life I have heard and observed, from a distance, this type of chicken operation. 
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Musical Instruments

 Traditional Tolai Musical Instruments and Dance Performance. Ismael K. Isikel  February 2024 Introduction  The vocabulary and brief explanations of musical instruments made and used by the Tolai people are presented in this article. Their names and variants are provided. These musical instruments are used during dance performances and other activities. One or two of these instruments are no longer in use or seen anywhere amongst the Tolai. Pangolo is one of them. In fact the word Pangolo had almost disappeared completely from Kuanua vocabulary.  They have faded away due to lack of practice and the influence of modern music and instruments.  Dance arrangement and performance - choreography - are also presented. The Tolai people occupy parts of the Eastern side of New Britain Island located on the Bismarck Archipelago in the Eastern Pacific. They speak Kuanua Language with some variations in dialect. Musical Instruments  Kundu is made from wood and bamboo: ...
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Counting

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In Kuanua the word reading is used in two different ways. Firstly, it is used to mean count   (counting items) and secondly, it is used to mean read, as in reading a book or article . The word  for counting is niluluk and for count is luk . Here the main numbers and general counting method is written  for you to count in Kuanua.The letter a  is usually added at the begining of most nouns. The number 1 is tikai  but is one of those numbers you do not need to add the letter a in the beginning to change tikai into atikai. No, never! 1 is tikai, but 2 is urua to aurua and 3 is utul to autul and so forth. Counting 1 to 10 is tikai (1), aurua (2), autul (3), iwat/aiwat (4), ilima/ ailima (5), laptikai/alapitaka(6), lavurua/aluvurua (7), lavutul/alavutul (8), lavuvat/alavuvat (9), winun/awinun (10). A counting guide is presented below for counting and using higher numerals.  Counting in Kuanua 10 - 1000 10  winun 20 ura winun ...
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Enquiry (Tinitir)

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  Edited 30/10/2017 Ismael K. Isikel  Inquiry terms and examples.                                                                 Aumana pakana tinata ure ra tinitir. Itale da watangia bula ba "Aumana mangana tinitir". Aivia ure ra en?         What?          Awa? Aha?/Asah? (Boawa dialect) What is that?     Awa nam? What do you want?    Awa u mainge? What is the reason?    Awa ra vuna? When?        Wingaia? When are you going?     Wingaia una vana? Where?       Awe?/Akave?/Akava?/Mamawe? Where is To Limut?     To Limut akave? Show me where is it.    We taria. Where are you going?     Una wana uwe?     Also commonly shortened ...
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Shooting Stars and Folklore

Shooting star. (Tulungen na virua) About a week ago I observed a fast streaking light that only lasted a few seconds travelling south above the sky. The name for shooting star in my language suddenly appeared in my thoughts. In Kuanua (Kabakada dialect) it is "tulungen na virua" and translated to English as "spirit of the dead". The phrase translated word by word to English: tulungen = spirit; na = of the; virua = dead. Tolai folklore on shooting star varies slightly or differently from one area to another but what is common is that a shooting star is the spririt of the dead travelling to its resting place. The name may also vary according to dialect. Soon after my observation of the shooting star i posted on it on Facebook and received two comments, from two Tolai Facebook friends. The first from Gideon Kakabin and the second from Doreen Samm Howes and here are their comments. 1. Also known as a gaugau na tup . If a shooting star appeared aft...
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Possesive Nouns in Kuanua

Edited 12/9/2017 Ismael K. Isikel Unlike the English possessive nouns, Kuanua has two sets of possessive nouns. One set is used for food items and another set is used for non-food items. In this post plural possessive nouns are indicated with plr and singular are indicated with s. var is used to indicate variation in word which is influenced by dialect. In everyday conversations plural possessive nouns are indicated clearly from two to three persons and more than three persons are referred to as plural in general. Note also that the letter a in the beginning of each word indicates possessive noun of food item. The letter k  in the beginning of each word indicates possessive noun of non-food item. Below is a list of possessive nouns of Food Items and Non-Food Items with examples.  Food Items adat  plr For us. More than three persons Tubugu ipare ra pa adat. My granny roasted taro for us. adatal plr For us. For the three of us. Nam ra en adatal,...
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