Lungalunga language

Not to be confused with Bilur language.
Lungalunga
Minigir
Vinitiri
Native to Papua New Guinea
Region Gazelle Peninsula, East New Britain Province
Ethnicity spoken by 40% (2000?)[1]
Native speakers
600 (2000)[2]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 vmg
Glottolog mini1251[3]

Lungalunga (Lunga Lunga), frequently though ambiguously called Minigir, is spoken by a small number of the Tolai people of Papua New Guinea, who live on the Gazelle Peninsula in East New Britain Province. It is often referred to in the linguistics literature as the Tolai "dialect" with an /s/.

Classification

Lungalunga belongs to the Oceanic branch of the Austronesian language family. The most immediate subgroup is the Patpatar–Tolai group of languages which also includes Kuanua (also spoken on the Gazelle Peninsula) and Patpatar (spoken on New Ireland).

A "Tolai-Nakanai trade language" reported in the literature was apparently not a pidgin as assumed, but Minigir (Lungalunga) with perhaps some Meramera or Nakanai mixed in.[4]

Geographic distribution

Lungalunga is spoken on Ataliklikun Bay, in the villages of Lungalunga, Kabaira and Vunamarita, located on the Gazelle Peninsula in the East New Britain Province of Papua New Guinea.

Grammar

Independent Pronouns

Lungalunga pronouns have four number distinctions (singular, dual, trial and plural) and three person distinctions (first, second and third) as well as an inclusive/exclusive distinction. There are no gender distinctions.

Singular Dual Trial Plural
1st exclusive iau
(I)
iamiru
(he/she and I)
iamitalu
(both of them, and I)
iamamami
(all of them, and I)
1st inclusive - iadori
(thou and I)
iadatalu
(both of you, and I)
iada
(all of you, and I)
2nd iavau
(thou)
iamuru
(you two)
iamutalu
(you three)
iamui
(you guys)
3rd ia
(he/she)
idiru
(they two)
iditalu
(they three)
idi
(they)

Syntax

The usual word order of Lungalunga is SVO.

References

  1. Lungalunga language at Ethnologue (15th ed., 2005)
  2. Lungalunga at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  3. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Minigir". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
  4. Tom Dutton, "Other pidgins in Papua New Guinea", in Wurm et al. (1996) Atlas of Languages of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas, vol 1:216, fn 1
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