Teanu language
Oceanic language spoken in the Solomon Islands
title: "Teanu language" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["languages-of-the-solomon-islands", "temotu-languages", "definitely-endangered-languages"] description: "Oceanic language spoken in the Solomon Islands" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teanu_language" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Oceanic language spoken in the Solomon Islands ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox language"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Teanu |
| altname | Buma, Puma |
| states | Solomon Islands |
| region | Vanikoro, Eastern Solomons |
| coordinates | |
| speakers | 800 |
| date | 2012 |
| ref | |
| familycolor | Austronesian |
| fam2 | Malayo-Polynesian |
| fam3 | Oceanic |
| fam4 | Temotu |
| fam5 | Vanikoro |
| iso3 | tkw |
| glotto | tean1237 |
| glottorefname | Teanu |
| map | Lang Status 60-DE.svg |
| mapcaption | |
| :: |
| name = Teanu | altname = Buma, Puma | states = Solomon Islands | region = Vanikoro, Eastern Solomons | coordinates = | speakers = 800 | date = 2012 | ref = | familycolor = Austronesian | fam2 = Malayo-Polynesian | fam3 = Oceanic | fam4 = Temotu | fam5 = Vanikoro | iso3 = tkw | glotto = tean1237 | glottorefname = Teanu | map = Lang Status 60-DE.svg | mapcaption =
Teanu (or Puma, Buma) is the main language spoken on the island of Vanikoro, in the easternmost province of the Solomon Islands.
Name
::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/AlexFrancois_carte-Vanikoro-ile-821.jpg" caption="Tanema]]'' and ''Teanu''Source: [https://marama.huma-num.fr/AF-maps-Vanikoro.htm#a Maps of Vanikoro (languages, place names)]." alt=""] ::
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.
Sources
The very first source about the languages of Vanikoro were wordlists collected in 1834 by French naturalist Joseph Paul Gaimard, as he took part in the first voyage of Astrolabe (1826–36) led by Dumont d'Urville. On top of his botanical and zoological work, Gaimard collected, and later published, about ten pages of wordlists in Teanu, Tanema and Lovono. In this work, the three languages were labelled respectively "Tanéanou", "Tanema", and "Vanikoro".
More data was collected in the 1980s by Australian linguist Darrell Tryon; he described Teanu using the name "Buma".
The languages of Vanikoro are currently being studied by French linguist Alexandre François.
Geographical distribution
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.
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
The phoneme inventory of Teanu includes 19 consonants and 5 vowels.
Consonants
::data[format=table] | Labio- velarized | Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Plosive | voiceless | prenasal | Nasal | Fricative | Liquid | lateral | trill | Approximant | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ::
The labiodental fricative /v/ can be freely devoiced , especially word-initially. By contrast, the phoneme /s/ is always heard voiceless.
Teanu does not have a phonemic palatal glide //: the sound [j] only exists as an allophone of /i/ before another vowel: e.g. iebe [i.e.ᵐbe] ~ [je.ᵐbe] ‘besom, broom’.
Vowels
Teanu has 5 phonemic vowels, /i e a o u/.
::data[format=table]
| Front | Back | Close | Close-mid | Open |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| :: |
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 .
Notes
References
- {{Citation | last = François | first = Alexandre | author-link = Alexandre François (linguist) | contribution = The languages of Vanikoro: Three lexicons and one grammar | editor-last = Evans | editor-first = Bethwyn | title = Discovering history through language: Papers in honour of Malcolm Ross | pages = 103–126 | publisher = Australian National University | place = Canberra | year = 2009 | series = Pacific Linguistics 605 | contribution-url = https://marama.huma-num.fr/data/AlexFrancois_2009_Vanikoro-languages.pdf
- {{cite book |last = François |first = Alexandre |author-mask=2 |date=2021a |title=Teanu dictionary (Solomon Islands) |location= |series=Dictionaria |volume=15 |pages= 1–1877 |url=https://dictionaria.clld.org/contributions/teanu |doi=10.5281/zenodo.5653063 |ref=dictionary
- {{cite web | url = https://marama.huma-num.fr/AF-dict-Teanu_e.htm | title = Online Teanu–English dictionary, with equivalents in Lovono and Tanema | last = François | first = Alexandre | author-mask=2 | date = 2021b | website = | publisher = CNRS | access-date = | ref= dict_3lgs
- {{cite web |url=https://pangloss.cnrs.fr/corpus/Teanu?lang=en&mode=pro&seeMore=true |title=Presentation of the Teanu language, and audio archive |last=François |first=Alexandre |author-mask=2 |author-link= |date=2022 |website=Pangloss Collection |location=Paris |publisher=CNRS |access-date= |ref=pangloss}}
- {{cite book |last=Gaimard |first=Joseph |author-link=Joseph Paul Gaimard |date=1834 |title=Voyage de découvertes de l'Astrolabe, exécuté par ordre du Roi, pendant les années 1826-1827-1828-1829, sous le commandement de M. J. Dumont d'Urville, Capitaine de vaisseau — Philologie |chapter=Vocabulaires des idiomes des habitans de Vanikoro |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_fh1EvifMKDIC/page/n168/mode/1up |location=Paris |publisher=Ministère de la Marine |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_fh1EvifMKDIC/ |pages= 165–174 |volume=1 |editor1=Jules Dumont d'Urville |editor1-link=Jules Dumont d'Urville |ref=Gaimard
References
- [https://marama.huma-num.fr/AF-field.htm#Solomons List of Vanikoro languages] (homepage of linguist [[Alexandre François (linguist). A. François]]).
- Source: [https://marama.huma-num.fr/AF-maps-Vanikoro.htm#a Maps of Vanikoro (languages, place names)].
- {{Harvcoltxt. François. 2009.
- [[#Gaimard. Gaimard (1834)]].
- [[#DT1994. Tryon (1994)]], [[#Tryon. 2002)]].
- See [[#F2009. François (2009]], [[#dictionary. 2021a]], [[#dict_3lgs. 2021b]]).
- [[#dictionary. François (2021a)]], Introduction to the Teanu dictionary – §[https://dictionaria.clld.org/contributions/teanu#section12 Phonology].
- See [[#pangloss. François (2022)]].
- [[#Tryon. Tryon (2002)]].
- François ([[#F2009. 2009]], [[#dictionary. 2021a]]), [[List of Latin phrases (P)#pace. ''pace'']] [[#Tryon. Tryon (2002)]].
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