Teanu language

For the island, see Teanu island.
Teanu
Teanu
Native to Solomon Islands
Region Vanikoro, Eastern Solomons
Coordinates 11°39′S 166°54′E / 11.650°S 166.900°E / -11.650; 166.900
Native speakers
 800 (2012)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 tkw
Glottolog tean1237[2]

Teanu (or Puma, Buma) is the main language spoken on the island of Vanikoro, in the easternmost province of the Solomon Islands.

Some information on Teanu, as well as on the two other languages of the island, can be found in François (2009).

Name

The language receives its name from Teanu, the island located northeast of the Vanikoro island group. The same language has also been known in the literature as Puma (or wrongly Buma), after the main village of Teanu island.[3]

Geography

Whereas Teanu used to be confined to the northeast part of the island group, during the 20th century it has become the main language of the whole island group of Vanikoro, at the expense of the two other indigenous languages Lovono and Tanema.[3]

While the Melanesian population of Vanikoro now speaks Teanu, the southern coast of the island also has been colonised for a few centuries by a Polynesian population, who still keep strong ties with their homeland, the nearby island of Tikopia. Their main language is Tikopia, even though some speak Teanu as a second language.

Notes

  1. ↑ List of Vanikoro languages (homepage of linguist A. François).
  2. ↑ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Teanu". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
  3. 1 2 François (2009).

References

External links


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