Tanema language

Tanema (Tetawo, Tetau) is a nearly extinct language of the island of Vanikoro, in the easternmost province of the Solomon Islands.

Tanema
Tetawo
Native to	Solomon Islands
Region	Vanikoro
Native speakers	1 (2012)[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Temotu Utupua–Vanikoro Vanikoro Tanema
Language codes
ISO 639-3	tnx
Glottolog	tane1237
ELP	Tanema[2]

Vitality

Map of Vanikoro I., showing the historical territories of the three tribes of Lovono, Tanema and Teanu.[3]

As of 2012, Tanema is only spoken by one speaker, Lainol Nalo.[1][4] It has been replaced by Teanu, the main language of Vanikoro.

The language

Some information on the languages of Vanikoro, including Tanema, can be found in François (2009) for the grammar, and François (2020) for the lexicon.

Notes

1. Homepage of the linguist A. François (CNRS).
2. Endangered Languages Project data for Tanema.
3. Source: Maps of Vanikoro (languages, place names).
4. “The Mystery of the Sinking South Pacific Islands” — Part 2: A Language's Lone Survivor (article in Der Spiegel, 15/06/2012).

References

• François, Alexandre (2009), "The languages of Vanikoro: Three lexicons and one grammar" (PDF), in Evans, Bethwyn (ed.), Discovering history through language: Papers in honour of Malcolm Ross, Pacific Linguistics 605, Canberra: Australian National University, pp. 103–126
• François, Alexandre (2020). Online Teanu–English dictionary, with lexical data in Lovono and Tanema. Paris, CNRS.

External links

• Audio recordings in the Tanema language, in open access, by A. François (source: Pangloss Collection of CNRS).