Kuni love poem

Here is my little love poem translated into Kuni, the Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian language of 2,500 people, who live near Bakoiudu in Papua New Guinea.

This language of the Papuan tip, is spoken inland between the Angabunga and Aroa rivers, in the northeast of the Roro territory.

Kuni language has not been really studied, there is no dictionary or grammar, just some vocabulary lists.

Depending on where it is spoken, Kuni presents some phonological and lexical differences.

Kunis are indigenous to Papua New Guinea. They live inland near Bakoiudu, in a territory of plains and mountains.

Their origins are uncertain. Some believe that their ancestors came from the mountains a little further north. Others, since their language is Austronesian, believe that they descend from a group of Austronesians who migrated inland.

Their location between mountains and plains has always placed them as intermediaries in bartering relationships.

They live by hunting (wild pigs, birds, wallabies, cassowaries), gathering, fishing and a little farming (sweet potato, taro, yam, bananas, sugar cane).

They live in groups (inau), headed by a hereditary chief.