Teanu language

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

For the island, see Teanu island.
Teanu
Teanu
Native toSolomon Islands
RegionVanikoro, Eastern Solomons
Native speakers
800 (2012)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3tkw
Glottologtean1237
ELPTeanu[2]
Coordinates: 11°39′S 166°54′E

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

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.[4]

Geography

Whereas Teanu used to be confined to the northeast part of the island group, during the 20th century it became the main language of the whole island group of Vanikoro, at the expense of the two other indigenous languages Lovono and Tanema.[4]

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.

Phonology

Consonants
Labio-
velarized		 Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar
Plosive voiceless pʷ p t k
prenasal ᵐbʷ ᵐb ⁿd ᶮɟ ᵑɡ
Nasal mʷ m n ɲ ŋ
Fricative v s
Lateral l
Trill r
Approximant w j

The labiodental fricative /v/ can be freely devoiced [f], especially word-initially.[5] By contrast, the phoneme /s/ is always heard voiceless.[6]

Vowels

Teanu has 5 phonemic vowels, /i e a o u/.[4]

  Front Back
Close i u
Close-mid e o
Open a

Tryon (2002) proposed that vowel length may be contrastive, but more recent research has found this to be incorrect: the language only has five short vowels (François 2009:107).

Grammar

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

Lexical information is found in the Teanu online dictionary (François 2020).

Notes
  1. List of Vanikoro languages (homepage of linguist A. François).
  2. Endangered Languages Project data for Teanu.
  3. Source: Maps of Vanikoro (languages, place names).
  4. François (2009).
  5. Tryon (2002).
  6. François (2009, 2020), pace Tryon (2002).

References
  • François, Alexandre (2009), "The languages of Vanikoro: Three lexicons and one grammar", 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 equivalents in Lovono and Tanema. Electronic publication, open access. Paris: CNRS.
  • Tryon, Darrell (2002), "Buma", in Lynch, John; Ross, Malcolm; Crowley, Terry (eds.), The Oceanic Languages, Richmond, Surrey: Curzon, pp. 573–586
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