Kosraen Giants

Numbers one to ten: Counting in the giant language of Kosrae

There was lived on Kosrae a race of giants with curly hair. These were no legends from children's fairy tales, but a real race of people. As late as 2005 elders can name the living descendants of this giant race. There is apparently some social embarrassment, the source of which I know not, that has caused people to prefer to keep secret or to outright deny that they are the descendants of these giants. I have been told names, but also been told not to disclose these names.

The following is from the language of the giants, the numbers from one to ten, as a remembered chant by Jusda [Amos Elesha] Nena Kilafwasru of Malem. She learned the chant in sixth grade, circa mid-1950s. The spelling is a phonetic interpretation of her chant done by Nena Kilafwasru.

  1. sra kah
  2. ro kah
  3. tor tor
  4. pah tah
  5. si re
  6. spah re
  7. re ti
  8. re twa
  9. sor sor
  10. acng

My presumption, especially given the curly hair, is that there might have been a founding progenitor or progenitors who were a people from another Pacific island such as Tonga. My only hope would be that someday someone might recognize the giant counting language as a known language on the planet and resolve the mystery.